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+ | ====== The Autobiography of a Forest Monk: Venerable Ajahn Thate of Wat Hin Mark Peng ====== | ||
+ | <span hide>The Autobiography of a Forest Monk</ | ||
+ | |||
+ | Nongkhai Province | ||
+ | |||
+ | Summary: | ||
+ | |||
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+ | Nongkhai Province</ | ||
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+ | <div # | ||
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+ | </ | ||
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+ | <div # | ||
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+ | <div # | ||
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+ | <div navigation></ | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Contents ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[#auto|The Autobiography of a Forest Monk]] | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[#aus|An Auspicious ' | ||
+ | * [[#ch1|1. Oppressive Times and Its Effect on People]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch2|2. Meeting Venerable Ajahn Singh Khantayaagamo]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch3|3. Leaving Home for a Second Time (Following after Ven. Ajahn Singh)]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch4|4. Receiving the Going Forth as a Novice (Further Studies)]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch5|5. A Novice Becomes Government Millionaire]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch6|6. Ordination at Wat Sutat-narahm]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch7|7. First Taste of Yearning]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch8|8. A Group of Tudong Monks Leaves Ubon]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch9|9. Meeting the Venerable Ajahn Mun for the First Time]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch10|10. Second Rains Retreat, 1924 (at Nong Laht)]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch11|11. Third Rains Retreat, 1925 (at Nah Chang Nam)]] | ||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | * [[#ch12|12. Fourth Rains Retreat, 1926 (in a Cemetery North of Ahgaht Amnoy District)]] | ||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | * [[#ch13|13. Fifth Rains Retreat, 1927 (Again at Nah Chang Nam Village)]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch14|14. Sixth Rains Retreat, 1928 (at Phra Nah Phak Hork Cave)]] | ||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | * [[#ch15|15. Rains Retreat, 1929, at Nah Sai Village]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch16|16. Eighth Rains Retreat, 1930 (with Ajahn Maha Pin at Phra Kreur Village)]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch17|17. Ninth Rains Retreat, 1931 (in the District of Phon)]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch18|18. Tenth Rains Retreat in Korat, 1932]] | ||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | * [[#ch19|19. Eleventh Rains Retreat, 1932 (at Wat Araññavasee in Tah Bor)]] | ||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | * [[#ch20|20. Twelfth Rains Retreat, 1934 (at Pah Mi-ang Maer Pung; A New Way of Meditation Practice)]] | ||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | * [[#ch21|21. Thirteenth Rains Retreat, 1935 (at a Moo-ser Village (Bahn Poo Phayah))]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch22|22. Fourteenth Rains Retreat, 1936 (The Same Location with Three Monks)]] | ||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | * [[#ch23|23. Fifteenth Rains Retreat, 1937 (Bahn Pong in Maer Dtaeng District)]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch24|24. Sixteenth Rains Retreat, 1938 (in Nong Doo Village, Pah Sahng District, Lampoon Province)]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch25|25. Seventeenth to Twenty-fifth Rains Retreats, 1939-47 (in Wat Araññavaasee, | ||
+ | * [[#ch26|26. Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Rains Retreat, 1948-1949 (Khao Noi, Tah Chalaep, Chantaburi Province)]] | ||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | * [[#ch27|27. Twenty-eighth Rains Retreat, 1950 (Koke Kloi, Phang-nga Province)]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch28|28. Twenty-ninth to Forty-first Rains Retreat, 1951-63 (in Phuket)]] | ||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | * [[#ch29|29. Forty Second Rains Retreat, 1964 (Tam Khahm Cave, Phannah Nikom District, Sakhon Nakorn Province)]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch30|30. Forty-third to Fiftieth Rains Retreat, 1965-72 (at Hin Mark Peng)]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch31|31. Fifty-first and Fifty-second Rains Retreat, 1973-74 (Establishing Wang Nam Mork as a Monks' Dwelling Place)]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch32|32. Fifty-third Rains Retreat, 1975 (Building Wat Lumpini)]] | ||
+ | * [[#ch33|33. Fifty-fourth Rains Retreat, 1976-77 (Spreading the Dhamma Abroad)]] | ||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | * // | ||
+ | * [[#ch35|35. Fifty-seventh Rains Retreat up to the Present, 1979-1991]] | ||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | * [[#ch36|36. Summary]] | ||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | * [[# | ||
+ | * | ||
+ | * [[stepsalong|Steps Along the Path]] | ||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * [[stepsalong# | ||
+ | * [[stepsalong# | ||
+ | * [[stepsalong# | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | * [[#ana|The Meaning of Anattaa]] | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Foreword ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Since the time of the Buddha, more than two thousand five hundred years ago, monks have retreated into the depths of the forests, mountains and caves, seeking physical isolation to aid them in the development of meditation and realization of //Dhamma,// the truth of the Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | This book is the autobiography of one such monk. Venerable Ajahn Thate recorded his own life story — it was first published for his seventy-second birthday celebration — so that it might be of benefit to those monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen following him. He recounts his life from his boyhood encounter with forest monks to his final status as one of the great masters of the modern era. Venerable Ajahn Thate passed away in 1994 aged ninety-two. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In his Autobiography, | ||
+ | |||
+ | This book is not intended only a description of Ven. Ajahn Thate' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Lay disciples have sometimes written biographies of deceased meditation masters not knowing all the influential events in their teachers' | ||
+ | |||
+ | In writing his autobiography, | ||
+ | |||
+ | In former times, the monasteries in the villages and towns of Thailand were usually the principal centers of learning. The village monastery provided a spiritual center for the village, where rites and ceremonies could be performed and where local boys could become monks, learn to read and perhaps start to study the Buddhist scriptures. (Traditionally, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The revival of the forest tradition in Thailand during the last century was a grassroots movement to return to the lifestyle and training that was practiced in the time of the Buddha. Some monks abandoned the busy village and town monasteries for the peace and quiet of the forest. They followed the Vinaya Rule more strictly, emphasizing the importance of every detail. Such monks lived without money, living frugally on whatever was offered and patiently enduring when necessities were scarce. They integrated the extra austere practices (tudong) recommended by the Buddha into their lifestyle. For example, eating only one meal a day from their alms bowl, wearing robes made from discarded cloth, and living in the forest or in cemeteries — often using a //krot// (a ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The very heart of the forest tradition is the development of meditation. By cultivating deep states of tranquillity and systematically investigating the body and mind, insight can arise into the true nature of existence. The forest masters were noted for their creativity in overcoming the problems, hindrances and defilements of the mind, and for their daring determination to realize // | ||
+ | |||
+ | The reader is asked to remember that this work was written by a Thai for a Thai audience, with no thought of its being translated into English. It depicts and represents the lifestyle, social values and gender roles of a rural Asian culture at the beginning of this century. The experience of ultimate reality must necessarily be expressed through the conventional modes of a particular time and place. Furthermore, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Nearly all the tropical forest Ven. Ajahn Thate walked through and described had been destroyed during his lifetime. In an attempt to slow this destruction and save such forest as remains, forest monks have often been in the forefront of raising social awareness of environmental issues. In many areas the only patches of forest left are those protected behind forest monastery walls. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This book also includes two other examples of Ven. Ajahn Thate' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Ven. Ajahn Thate dedicated his life to the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha, and from great compassion he taught and trained his followers in the practices leading to Nibbana. It is our sincere wish that the readers of his autobiography find it to be a source of inspiration and that they experience the deep peace, joy and wisdom that are the fruits of the Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Translator' | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Due to this memoir' | ||
+ | |||
+ | All (parentheses) are from the original, [brackets] and footnotes have been added by the translators. The author had brought the book up to date with additions and the translation has kept to that structure, the section numbering therefore comes from the original. ??? | ||
+ | |||
+ | Please see the Glossary for an explanation of many words and terms. (Note that there is a separate glossary for //Steps Along The Path.)// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ??? Transliteration of Thai names and terms into the meager twenty-six letters of the English alphabet must always involve a compromise between consistency and readability. Pali names and terms are problematic because of type and diacritical restrictions in this electronic format. We have at least tried to show some long Pali vowels by following the convention of doubling up the English vowel, e.g., " | ||
+ | |||
+ | Dates in the original are always given according to the (Thai) Buddhist Era (B.E.). We have converted them to the Common Era which began 543 years later; e.g., B.E. 2539 is C.E. 1996. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Titles and honorifics are important in Thai social interaction. I have tried to follow this convention, remaining faithful to the original, and hope that it does not prove too unwieldy. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Many people have helped in the realization of this completely new translation. (Mr. Siri Buddhasukh produced an early translation in 1978, which he entitled //My Life.)// This more thorough translation originated through the energy of Upasika Tan Bee Chun. Ven. Bhikkhu Ñaanadhammo put a great deal of work into assisting with the translation and then Jane B. and Steve G. in Cornwall, England, Barry (now Bhikkhu Santidhammo) in Australia, Khun V. and Khunying Suripan in Thailand, all helped to complete the task. | ||
+ | |||
+ | We ask forgiveness from the venerable author and our readers for any inadequacies or mistakes in the actual translation. Any translation must inevitably fall short of the original and in the end it rests with you, the reader, to complete the translation within yourself. Whether monk, nun or lay person, from East or West, may this 'life of Dhamma' | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | September 1996</ | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Preface to the First Edition ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Most biographies are written by someone else, or when the person in question is already dead. There is the tendency to follow conventional writing sensibilities by eulogising the subject, in a way similar to what one hears at the funeral rites. Though one might know that the person had also committed some dark deeds, etiquette and decorum dictate what can be recorded. Good manners are exhibited in four ways: | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | 1. A person is bad in many ways. When asked about him or her one should not reply or only say a little. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 2. A person is good in few ways. When asked about him or her one describes them all. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 3. One's own bad traits are few. When asked about them one describes them all. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 4. Though one's good traits are many, if nobody asks, one says nothing, and when asked, one says little. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | I am someone who goes directly for the truth, and therefore I don't want anyone to write this sort of biography after I am dead. I know about myself so it is better that I do the job. After my death they can then write as they like about me. If they dislike me, this will influence what they relate, perhaps they will inflate the trifling cause of their displeasure beyond the truth. On the other hand, if they love me, they will magnify my good points out of all proportion. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In truth, I first wrote this // | ||
+ | |||
+ | When lay devotees arranged my sixth cycle [seventy-second] birthday celebrations on the twenty-sixth of April 1974, they also asked to print and to distribute my Autobiography at that time. I realized that if I didn't agree it would get written after I was dead anyway. I therefore quickly finished off the Autobiography that I had been writing so that it was ready for the celebration... | ||
+ | |||
+ | May readers forgive me if my // | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | (Ven. Ajahn Thate)\\ | ||
+ | Wat Hin Mark Peng\\ | ||
+ | 31 March 1974</ | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Preface to the Twelfth Edition ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | ... Although I have brought this Autobiography up-to-date, please understand that the essential core has not been changed because the real subject of the book is still here... | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | (Ven. Ajahn Thate)\\ | ||
+ | 26 April 1991</ | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== The Autobiography of a Forest Monk ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | My first name is Thate and I had the family name of Ree-o rahng. I was born at about nine o' | ||
+ | |||
+ | My father' | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | Mr. Kumdee Ree-o rahng (now deceased)\\ | ||
+ | Mrs. Ahn Prahp-phahn (now deceased)\\ | ||
+ | Kaen (boy) (died as a child)\\ | ||
+ | Krai (girl) (died as a child)\\ | ||
+ | Mrs. Naen Chiang-tong (now deceased)\\ | ||
+ | Mr. Plian Ree-o rahng (now deceased)\\ | ||
+ | Mrs. Noo-an Glah Kaeng (now deceased)\\ | ||
+ | Ven. Phra Gate Khantiko (now deceased)\\ | ||
+ | Ven. Phra Thate Desarangsee< | ||
+ | Mrs. Thoop Dee-man (now deceased) | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | When I was nine, I went with all my friends to the village monastery for schooling, studying central Thai and the indigenous and traditional // | ||
+ | |||
+ | In those days, the establishment of government schools had not yet spread throughout the country side. So while my eldest brother was a monk he had taken the opportunity to go out and travel and gain some wider experience. He also had a good retentive memory and was able to learn central Thai< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Although I had left the monastery, my life continued to be involved mainly with the monks and novices. When my brother left the monkhood, no monk remained to take on the responsibilities of abbot. Occasionally, | ||
+ | |||
+ | I conscientiously and unfailing took on these duties for a full six years. My parents gave me their full support and encouragement, | ||
+ | |||
+ | About this time, I began thinking with increasing interest about good and evil, about virtuous and base deeds. Whenever any doubts or questions came up, I would always make sure to ask my father. Consequently, | ||
+ | |||
+ | I asked him: "If two people go and make merit through good deeds and generosity, and one is ordained as a monk while the other isn't, which one of them would gain the greater merit?" | ||
+ | |||
+ | Although I probably didn't then fully understand his explanation, | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Parents' | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | At this point, there is something that I feel must relate. It concerns the life story of my parents. This is something very special for me because I recall their love and kindness towards me with such immense gratitude. Particularly so concerning the time they spent teaching me about various things — especially about morality and religious values. It really seems as if they had a special love and concern for me. They also used to tell me about their younger days in quite some detail, so much so that listening to their trials and tribulations aroused sadness and a feeling of great pity and compassion for them both. | ||
+ | |||
+ | As I have mentioned before, both my father and mother were refugees and fatherless orphans. My father originally lived in the highlands of Darn Sai District, in Loei Province. He migrated from there to escape the privations of its hand-to-mouth existence and came down to the more fertile lowlands. People had told him that the region around the town of Nongkhai was fertile and abundant in rice and food. This was in stark contrast to his home region where, even though their occupation was the growing of rice, they never seemed able to produce enough rice to eat. The countryside there was mostly mountainous with little land available for normal paddy fields so planting supplementary fields up on the mountain slopes was necessary. This called for the cultivation of large areas to produce sufficient rice. | ||
+ | |||
+ | My father told me that because his father was already dead, the responsibility for supporting his four brothers and sisters together with his mother had fallen on him. Their fields had extended as far as the eye could see. When they paused in their work to have a meal, they would not bother putting up any shelter but would eat out under the open sky. This was done because my father was concerned that his younger brothers and sisters after eating their fill would become lazy and want to rest rather than getting on with the work. Despite all such effort, in years of inadequate rainfall there would not be enough to eat. Some families had no rice at all and so were reduced to consuming // | ||
+ | |||
+ | He trekked down to the lowlands with his four younger brothers and sisters and their mother. There was sister Boonmah, brothers Gunhah and Chiang-In, and sister Dtaeng-orn. The party expanded when many relatives and other people also elected to go. Their migration involved crossing several high mountain ranges — the Poo Fah and Poo Luang, for instance — and dense jungle tracts. People owning elephants or pack animals could more easily convey their belongings and so had an advantage over those who were forced to carry everything on their shoulders. Their own strength had to serve as their vehicle. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It took more than a week to reach the village of Nah Ngiew. On arrival, they established a temporary camp on the edge of a large lake, Nong Pla or Fish Lake, in Nong Dtao. Later, they moved on and made a permanent settlement in the village of Nah Ngiew, which is still there to this day. | ||
+ | |||
+ | My mother' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Afterwards, her husband died and my grandmother was left alone with two children. At that time the surrounding regions had become infested with bandits and thieves, and the authorities seemed powerless and unable to deal with them. Under such conditions even ordinarily honest people were corrupted and became criminals. An example of such a person was the man Chiang Tong who had been a member of their migrant group. He joined the bandits and was constantly leaving home and going out to cause mischief. In the end, he had to flee from the threat of arrest by hiding out around Glahng Yai in Bahn Peur District. While there, he witnessed the good-naturedness of the local inhabitants and saw their peaceful ways with their abundant and prosperous life. He decided to go back to Muang Fahng and report, and try to persuade his relatives and friends to move on to Glahng Yai. | ||
+ | |||
+ | My mother told me that scores of people decided to join the party that was to journey on. They traveled on foot down through Phetchaboon, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Those remaining in Chiang Tong's group struggled on down and eventually arrived at Glahng Yai Village. My grandmother with her younger brother and her two children — this was my mother and her younger brother, my uncle — had to remain dependent on older and senior friends in the group. When the time arrives for us to experience suffering, then odd things can occur. It happened that my grandmother' | ||
+ | |||
+ | On arrival at Glahng Yai Village, a group separated from the main party and moved on to settle in the village of Nah Bong Poo Pet, in the district of Pon-pisai. One of my mother' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Afterwards, when my mother had grown up she met my father and fell in love. They were married and settled down to live together in the village of Nah Seedah and produced ten children — as has been mentioned earlier. | ||
+ | |||
+ | My grandmother eventually married again, this time to the same Chiang Tong who had been their leader on the journey. They lived out their later years together until misfortune struck: a tree branch fell on my grandmother' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Chiang Tong wore white robes and kept the Eight Precepts< | ||
+ | |||
+ | It was a pitiful state of affairs. Those people who have done evil will find that the consequences are liable to catch up with them before they die. Living amongst base people — those who are unprincipled and lacking in virtue and morality — tends to pass on such evil so that it corrupts most of the people involved. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This suffering of ours has no limits. We let go of one thing and grasp hold of something else. It goes on and on and on in this way, throughout our life. This is why the wise person becomes weary and tired of the suffering inherent in this world and seeks for a way to go beyond it. | ||
+ | |||
+ | After her mother passed away, my mother was able to find support from her husband and children, for their livelihood was now enough to get by on. Although they might only have as little as six // | ||
+ | |||
+ | After a time their third son died. My father had had a particular love for this son and he became so distraught with the loss that he almost went out of his mind. The child had been so loveable and intelligent; | ||
+ | |||
+ | This //going forth// as a monk into the Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | As the clouds of his sorrow gradually lifted, my father realized that he missed his six innocent children and his abandoned wife. They were fatherless, without friends or relatives and this moved him to leave the monkhood and become a householder again.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | The thing that I rejoice in most is that although I didn't support my parents in the normal lay manner, I could still sustain and foster their goodwill and kindheartedness. This was achieved by my following the holy life as a monk and by being able to help train their hearts in stages right up to the last days of their lives. Both my parents seemed well pleased with how I had turned out and were not disappointed in having brought me up. This was because I had fulfilled a son's filial obligations. That is to say, I had given them teachings and instruction concerning the practice of morality and virtue, which enabled what they already knew to develop progressively higher and higher. I am especially happy that I was able to help my father with advice and suggestions about his meditation practice, right until his last day. He was delighted and more than willing to receive my training methods and to put them into practice, until he was able clearly to see the results in his own heart. Eventually, he was able to exclaim that throughout all his seventy-five years he had never known such peace and happiness. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It gives me enormous joy to have taught my mother right through to her final day. When she was breathing her last, I was present caring for her, helping her to remember Dhamma. She was consciously aware and willingly took my counsel to heart, so that in her last moments her face became bright and radiant. There is a stanza of the Lord Buddha — if I remember it correctly — where he outlined how a son of good family, intent on repaying the kindness and virtue of his father and mother should act: | ||
+ | |||
+ | //'If he were to administer to their every need in the best possible way, to a degree difficult to find in the world; even if he were to provide them with the treasure of a World Ruling Monarch// (// | ||
+ | |||
+ | The wealth of the //Noble Treasure// is priceless and can go with the individual wherever he or she may go. Therefore, saying that I have managed to practice following all the Lord Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== An Auspicious ' | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | About this time in my life — perhaps it was because I was entering my teens or for another reason, I don't know — my father showed an extra special interest in me. After the evening meal, around seven o' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sometimes he would question me or ask my opinion. For example, he would enquire: //"Do you like girls? And when you marry, what sort of girl will you marry?" | ||
+ | |||
+ | While asleep one night, I had a visionary dream: | ||
+ | |||
+ | //There I was with a large group of friends, setting out from the house to go and play in the fields. This was typical boyish behavior for us in those days. Just then, two forest monks//< | ||
+ | |||
+ | When I came to my senses, I found I was still trembling and was soaked in perspiration from head to toe. My heart throbbed violently and where I had been whipped still stung. I really thought that it had all actually happened and even gingerly felt with my hand to check. It was so vivid that it seemed real. I then pulled myself together and mindfully went over what had happened. After careful consideration the mind eventually calmed down and my fear went away. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This episode gradually faded from my memory and was forgotten for a long time. It was only when I was out wandering in the jungle as a forest novice-monk with my meditation teacher that it all came back to me. That visionary dream from the distant past did truly seem to point out future events and to have been correct in every respect. | ||
+ | |||
+ | About this time another incident happened to me — but this was no dream or vision. I had been unable to get to sleep until late at night for I was taken up with recalling and reflecting on the great kindness and goodness of my parents. I allowed my thoughts to wander and pondered about them, seeing how they had raised and nurtured us ten children with great sacrifice and grinding toil until we reached maturity. Soon, their children would be grown up and married and have families of their own. They would all then disperse, going their separate ways. I reached that thought and felt compelled to consider what my parent' | ||
+ | |||
+ | All //dhammas// exist here, within each of us and the one that knows Dhamma is the heart or mind. Whether it knows much or little, whether it knows in a course or more refined way, depends on one's present competence, one's aptitude and maturity (// | ||
+ | |||
+ | The resolution that I made then came from gratitude and appreciation of the goodness and virtue of my parents. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Another night a similar thing happened. I lay there reflecting on the condition of the ordinary village farmer and their routine working year: | ||
+ | |||
+ | The annual cycle begins during the months of March and April when forest needs to be cleared for new fields. The area is burned off, the remaining stumps and roots dug out and fences erected. When the monsoon rains arrive, the various crops have to be prepared and planted out, according to whatever is planned. Those families with few or insufficient members would have to decide how to divide their time between the various tasks. | ||
+ | |||
+ | There is the general plowing to do, and the sowing and preparation of the nursery-rice seedlings. This entails working and laboring continuously until the rice seedlings are ready for transplanting.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | It is mainly the housewife' | ||
+ | |||
+ | As the monks come to the end of their Rains Retreat, the villagers will usually begin harvesting the paddy rice. However, prior to this, they must first harvest any hill rice.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Even when harvesting was taking place during the day, at night the bamboo strips< | ||
+ | |||
+ | About the boiling up of the sugar cane: | ||
+ | |||
+ | The daily process began in the early afternoon with entry into the sugar cane plantation. Sufficient cane had to be cut ready for the next morning' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Well then. What was it on that night that led me to go over all this in such detail? All the different phases of the adult' | ||
+ | |||
+ | This way of thinking went directly against my juvenile views and perception of reality. I was intoxicated with the idea that 'this world is so much fun'. Remember, in those days children didn't have to go to school nor did they have any responsibilities to worry about. After having eaten there was only playing around and looking for fun with my friends. If sometimes we had to go and take the cattle or buffalos out to graze, we could also turn that into fun. | ||
+ | |||
+ | On that night, I clearly perceived all the suffering involved in being born into this world as a human being. I saw it for myself, right there in my own heart, previously never having given it any consideration at all. This time, however, my perception was only about seeing the suffering inherent in the struggle to fill one's stomach, with seeing that each day offered no free time, no break in the process. I could not see what I had to do to surmount and go beyond such suffering. That lack of understanding shows that it cannot be considered the //Noble Truth of Suffering//< | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 1. Oppressive Times and Its Effect on People ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | It was during this period, that our part of the country became infested with brigands and cattle rustlers. These gangsters took over the whole region and even ten-year-old children and women engaged in the thieving. The authorities were impotent and so the villagers had to look after themselves. Each household kept a whole pack of guard dogs and at night everyone had to take it in turns to stand guard. Whenever cattle were stolen, the owner would have to go and pay an absurdly overpriced ransom for their return. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The stouthearted would go out after the thieves and hunt them down like wild animals. There would then be some peace and respite. The authorities seemed to approve and even actively encourage such retaliation. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I was still only small but I also had some big ideas about being famous. I did not want to become renowned as thief or robber but rather as the hero who conquered them, so I set my mind on one thing: //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | At this time I was also helping to look after a very talkative and boastful monk — excuse me, but that is the description he deserves. His place of origin was the village of Muang Kai which is where the district of Varnorn-nivart borders on Bueng Kahn District. He shrewdly must have guessed my innermost thoughts because before long he was suggesting: "After the Rains Retreat, why don't you come back with me to my home village. I have there every sort of thing. If you want charms, arcane herbs, the whole range of accessories that give invulnerability, | ||
+ | |||
+ | I was delighted with this. So as soon as the Rains Retreat ended, three older youths — my elder brother and two of his friends — with myself as a much younger fourth accompanied this monk back to his home village. We discovered on reaching our destination that the monk had really duped us into escorting him back home. None of the villagers in that area had any respect for him, because he had already ordained and disrobed numerous times. The last news I heard of him was that he had disrobed yet again, had got married and that both husband and wife were smoking opium. The two bigger youths who had gone with us still pleaded with him to learn about and obtain the various //special things.//< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Our group stayed with him for about ten days before taking leave to return home with our hopes all unrealized. Every day while we had been staying with him, he had urged us to go out to find eels for him to eat.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | It took us three days to walk home. I felt particularly humiliated and ashamed. On leaving home I had resolved to seek out and learn the occult knowledge of ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I consider myself particularly fortunate on this account: I had been born into a family of good moral conduct and virtuous behavior; I had been taught and prepared through living in a monastery with monks — who could be truly regarded as good monks. Whenever external conditions and surroundings coerced and pressured my mind, forcing it to turn towards what was low and base, it seemed that things never turned out as my base desires would have it. If they had, who knows what might have happened to me. Perhaps one can say that my good //kamma// and //past merit// guided and protected me. | ||
+ | |||
+ | That long journey was the first time in my life that I had gone away from home. We were all staying at Muang Kai Village when the news first came through about the outbreak of World War I. It was all anyone ever spoke about when they came to visit the monastery.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | When I arrived home again, I resumed my practice of serving the monks in the monastery as I had always done. However, I didn't always sleep at the monastery and had the duty of bursar or steward (// | ||
+ | |||
+ | I had been going regularly to the monastery throughout an extended period of about six years and had become closely acquainted with the monks and novices. However, on no occasion did any of the monks teach me about keeping the Five or Eight Precepts. Strange as it may seem, this is quite understandable because the //Sangha// or Community of monks of that time was seriously deficient in learning. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 2. Meeting Venerable Ajahn Singh Khantayaagamo ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | In 1916, Ven. Ajahn Singh Khantayaagamo (the future //Phra Ñaa.navisit' | ||
+ | |||
+ | In particular, the visiting monks taught me about their various obligations and duties. For example, I learned the ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The venerable monks stayed with us for a little more than two months. At first they were also intending to spend the Rains Retreat but a previous malarial infection flared up again. Therefore, just before the start of the Rains Retreat, they left to stay at an abandoned monastery in the village of Nah Bong, Nahm Mong Subdistrict in the district of Tah Bor and I was able to go with them. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The monks were ill with malaria throughout the three months of the Rains Retreat. In spite of his illness, Ven. Ajahn Singh would still kindly use some of his free time to teach me reading and writing, with occasional training in religious matters. Towards the end of the Rains Retreat something came up in his mind — I don't know quite what — for he said that after the Retreat he would have to return to his home village and asked if I would go with him. "The journey will be long and tough," | ||
+ | |||
+ | A few days before the end of the Rains Retreat, I asked his permission to go home to take leave of my parents. Both of the monks seemed pleased with the idea that I would be going with them and they quickly organized some flowers, incense and candles for me to go and offer to my parents. This is the traditional way of asking forgiveness and blessing. (They gave me excellent teaching about this custom. In fact even the first time I had fled from home, I had followed this practice.) | ||
+ | |||
+ | On the evening of that night, after seeking forgiveness and a blessing from my parents, I continued around and asked the same of all the family elders and the older people in the village. Whomever I went to see would weep with sorrow, as if I were going off to my death. I became a bit sentimental and could not hold back my own tears. At daybreak, my mother and aunt set out with me to where the Venerable Ajahn was staying and we all spent the night there. It was // | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 3. Leaving Home for a Second Time Following after Ven. Ajahn Singh ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | It was perhaps unprecedented for a boy of that region and my age to venture away from home on such a long journey. It also meant being cut off from my relatives and friends who would have offered comfort and warmth. Not only that, it seems that I may well have been the first boy to venture off — without any worries or regrets — following after forest meditation monks. We set off walking from Tah Bor wading through water and mud, steadily pressing on through the forest and passing across the rice fields.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | We walked for three days before reaching the provincial town of Udorn-thani, | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 4. Receiving the Going Forth as a Novice Further Studies ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | While staying in Nong Korn Village, Ven. Ajahn Singh sent me to ask for novice ordination< | ||
+ | |||
+ | At this time, I was becoming somewhat more proficient in my reading and had been going through the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | Venerable Ajahn Singh took me to stay at Wat Sutat-narahm in Ubon town. It was a monastery where he himself had once lived. I now entered the monastery school at Wat See-tong to continue with my Thai Language studies. Having settled me there and with the Rains Retreat being over, Ven. Ajahn Singh turned back to his forest wandering. He returned by way of Sakhon Nakorn Province because a group of monks led by the Venerable Ajahn Mun was wandering in that region. The night before Ven. Ajahn Singh set out, he called a meeting of the monks and novices and informed us of his intentions. On hearing this news, I felt such an enormous reluctance to be parted from him that I began to sob — right there in the middle of that large gathering. Feeling self-conscious and embarrassed in front of my friends, I beat a hasty retreat and hurried outside to reestablish some mindfulness and try to compose myself. I remembered the occasion in the time of the Lord Buddha, when the Venerable Ananda wept on learning that the Lord Buddha was soon finally to pass away. By reflecting on this, it somewhat assuaged my own heart' | ||
+ | |||
+ | At the same time as learning Thai, I had to allocate time for memorizing Pali chanting and studying the //General Dhamma Studies Course.//< | ||
+ | |||
+ | My memorizing of the Pali texts continued and I was learning by heart the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | On leaving the Thai language school I turned my full attention to studying Pali. However, in that year of my studies it so happened that Ven. Mahaa Pin Paññaabalo — who was the younger brother of Ven. Ajahn Singh — came back from Bangkok. He initiated a course in //Nak Dhamm' Toh,// Grade Two, which was the first of its kind in that administrative region of the Northeast. I therefore also enrolled for that course but I was never able to finish it, nor indeed the Pali, because Ven. Ajahn Singh returned to spend the Rains Retreat at Wat Sutat-narahm. After the Rains Retreat — and before I could take my examinations — he led Ven. Ajahn Mahaa Pin and me off on //tudong.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 5. A Novice Becomes Government Millionaire ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | It was the novice Thate who became the millionaire. Here, I am talking about the time when the government thought up the idea of creating one new ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | One night it so happened that Novice Thate was unable to sleep because he had just won first prize in the lottery. It was time to set about finding the site to build himself a grand and extensive three story mansion. This residence would be furnished to the most modern designs and be in the center of the commercial district. The employees and assistants would have to fill the shelves with every imaginable kind of merchandise. He would be at ease in body and mind without a worry in the world and spend his time lounging on a sofa, making eyes at the attractive young women who would come in to shop. Whoever chanced a glance in his direction and smiled, would receive a happy smile back. Throughout his life of eighteen to nineteen years, he had never known greater happiness. | ||
+ | |||
+ | He had indeed attained the rank of millionaire — just as the government had wished. Yet then, within the blink of an eye, with all the things still fresh and new, //aniccaa// or // | ||
+ | |||
+ | Novice Thate comes to his senses and he realizes that it is already late into the night: //'It should already be time for sleep — Hey, what is this? Not only has the lottery yet to take place but I haven' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Anyone can become this sort of ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I went forth as a monk through my faith in the Lord Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Lord Buddha once pointed out a money bag to Venerable Ananda and explained that it was something poisonous. He added that it was not only poisonous to monks and nuns who involve themselves with it, but also to lay people who do not know how to handle it correctly. For lay people however it is a necessity, something that has to be used, for their condition and way of life is quite different from that of a monk or nun. Taking this further, anyone in possession of great wealth but unable to deal with it properly is in the same position as someone holding a firebrand. The fire will inevitably burn down from the ignited end to scorch the hand that grasps it. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I was a novice for five years before becoming a monk and having spent such a long time in a monastery gave me a considerable advantage over the other newly ordained monks. I was on old hand, so to speak, and knew very well how the monastery worked. It gave me a head start over those who were given bhikkhu ordination with me. For instance, I already knew the chanting and could recite the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 6. Ordination at Wat Sutat-narahm ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | On the 16th of May 1923,< | ||
+ | |||
+ | This was the year that my teacher, the Venerable Ajahn Singh Khantayaagamo, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Venerable Ajahn Singh came back to spend the Rains Retreat in Ubon because he learned that his younger brother, Venerable Maha Pin, had arrived back there from Bangkok. Ven. Ajahn Singh' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Following the end of the Rains Retreat and the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | (Ven. Mahaa Pin Paññaabalo had completed his fifth grade Pali studies. He can therefore be considered the first scholastic monk of //Mahaa// grade< | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 7. First Taste of Yearning ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | I had been living at Wat Sutat' in Ubon, separated from family and close friends, for a full six years. While I was living there various people left their sons and grandsons under my care. Four boys lived with me as my ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | At the time those feelings hadn't seemed too overpowering but later, after we had left, they seeped in and made me feel dull and listless for a remarkably long time. Whether I was walking, standing, sitting or lying down, even while talking or eating, my heart was preoccupied in gloom and sadness, longing for my ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I therefore had to think through and reflect on my situation: //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Human beings are really no different from young monkeys that cannot live alone, separated from their mother. This caused me to become overwhelming fearful of sentimental attachment. Such yearning and longing lead to suffering both when one is united and when separated. What can we do to gain freedom? | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 8. A Group of Tudong Monks Leaves Ubon ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Our party of twelve — eight monks and four novices — with Ven. Ajahn Singh leading, made our way out of Ubon town during November.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Our walking on //tudong// this time did not offer much solitude and seclusion because of the large number in our party. Nevertheless, | ||
+ | |||
+ | When we eventually reached the village monastery, we found that it was already occupied by sleeping lay people. These were the six traveling salesmen who had been walking with us for part of the journey. When they had previously spotted the mass of dark storm clouds building up on the horizon, they had announced that they were going to stay in the village rather than sleeping out. They now helped to arrange whatever sleeping places could be found for us. With the sleeping places arranged, we hurried back to escort the Ven. Ajahn in, with those seven or eight of our companions who had remained outside with him. Reaching the monastery and sorting out our things, we could then lie down and try to get some sleep. The // | ||
+ | |||
+ | After the meal we continued our journey. The Ven. Ajahn led us straight through dense jungles towards the provincial towns of Roi-et and Kalasin. We passed through Dong Ling and emerged in the district of Sahassakan, near Koomphavapee District of Udorn-thani Province. However, we didn't actually enter the main town but stayed to the west in the village of Chiang Pin. We went there to await the arrival from Bangkok of the Ecclesiastical Head [Monk] of that Region or Chao Kana Monton. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Chao Kana Monton instructed our party to come and wait upon him in Udorn at this time with the aim of bringing Ven. Maha Pin to take up residence in Udorn. This was because Udorn town didn't yet have any monks of the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | We all went to pay our respects to the //Chao Kana Monton// as soon as he arrived and found that there had been another change of plans. He now wanted to send Ven. Maha Pin to stay in the province of Sakhon Nakorn and to have me stay with Ven. Maha Joom in Udorn. His reasons being that there weren' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I instead requested that he allow me to go off to practice meditation to honor his authority and dignity. For meditation monks were few and far between, whereas scholastic and administrative monks were numerous and wouldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 9. Meeting the Venerable Ajahn Mun for the First Time ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | After these matters had all been settled, Ven. Ajahn Singh led our group off to pay respects to Venerable Ajahn Mun who was staying at Kor Village, in the district of Bahn Peur. Venerable Ajahn Sao<span notetag # | ||
+ | |||
+ | That night, after the Dhamma talk was over, Ven. Ajahn Mun spoke more informally with us about Dhamma. He concluded the discussion by forecasting something about the various abilities and qualities of Ven. Maha Pin and myself. This made me feel extremely uncomfortable and abashed, for I was right there in the midst of the monks and was not only newly ordained but I couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | In fact, I had begun to feel very self-conscious from the moment we entered the monastery area in the early part of the evening — although I don't know how the others felt about it. I had looked over the place and noted the way the monks lived, similarly with the novices and right through to the lay people in the monastery. How could they all be so well mannered and orderly? Each seemed to be going about their personal duties and routine tasks. Then came the predictions about Ven. Maha Pin, and when he moved on to me it doubled my embarrassment. Venerable Maha Pin himself probably didn't feel much at all, apart from some introspective checking of his abilities with what Ven. Ajahn Mun had predicted. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The next morning after the meal, Ven. Ajahn Singh led our party off again on the trail to the village of Nah Seedah. We stayed there for four nights before retracing our steps back to spend another night with Ven. Ajahn Mun. Then we walked back to Udorn and carried on to Sakhon Nakorn, in line with what we had agreed with the //Chao Kana Monton.// However, subsequent events didn't work out as the //Chao Kana Monton// had planned because Ven. Maha Pin became ill and couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 10. Second Rains Retreat, 1924 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Before entering the Rains Retreat, I found an excellent Dhamma companion in a monk by the name of Venerable Glom, from Loei Province. We had twice gone up to the cave Tam Puang, on Poo Lek mountain, to develop meditation together. The first time we went up for four nights and the second time for six nights. The village headman named Orn-see — (later he became the Subdistrict Official Khun Prajak, and then he ordained and continued as a monk until his death) — arranged for someone to climb up to offer us food on a regular basis. I will always remember his kindness and goodwill. Ven. Ajahn Mun had remarked that this particular village headman was intelligent and astute about everything — from his quick-witted speech, to his work and social involvements in the community. He always seemed able to keep abreast of affairs. When it came to monks, his talents were remarkable for he was immediately and competently able to arrange whatever a monk might need, with nothing more than the barest hint by the monk. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The two of us were thus supplied with all //four suitable things supportive of meditation practice//< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Increasing my exertion also raised my appreciation for the villagers' | ||
+ | |||
+ | As the Rains Retreat approached, we went down to stay with Ven. Ajahn Singh in the monastery of Nong Lart Village. As I was still a newly ordained monk during this Rains Retreat, I didn't have to take on any responsibilities. Apart, that is, from attending to the needs of the senior monk< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Throughout the Rains Retreat I further developed my meditation practice following the scheme that I had observed while out on the mountain. On top of that, I added some yoga techniques as an experiment. By this I mean progressively reducing my daily food intake from seventy small lumps of sticky rice down to three mouthfuls. Then I gradually increased again to thirty mouthfuls before cutting back down to five mouthfuls. Each sequence of this would take some three or four days and I continued like this throughout the Rains Retreat. Although the longest period was when I ate only fifteen mouthfuls of food a day and then it was only vegetarian food. My build is naturally quite slim and so when that became quite emaciated the villagers started to notice. Everyone who saw me, asked what was wrong but I had the will power and the spirit to carry on as normal with my duties and meditation practice. | ||
+ | |||
+ | As soon as the Rains Retreat was over, I resumed eating some meat and fish again. But Oh! How foul they now smelled. We human beings consume their meat and make it into our own flesh. It's just as if we snatch away and steal something foul and then eat it. This is why the //devas// and other heavenly beings won't come close to humans — it's our offensive smell. Yet human beings themselves seem to find no difficulty in embracing and admiring these corpses of ours. | ||
+ | |||
+ | After the Rains Retreat I went up onto the mountain once more, but this time accompanied by Ven. Ajahn Singh himself. We had stayed up there for nine days when he became ill and asked me to go down and bring back the rest of our party of monks. When we saw that taking care of him there wouldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Ven. Ajahn Mun sent a message at that time requesting that I go and meet him in the district of Tah Bor. I complied with those instructions and took my leave of Ven. Ajahn Singh and, as it happened, met up with Ven. Ajahn Mun and Ven. Ajahn Sao along the way. They had received an invitation from Wat Bodhisomphorn, | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 11. Third Rains Retreat, 1925 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | During this Rains Retreat I resided near the village of Nah Chang Nam and not far from Tah Bor where Ven. Ajahn Mun was staying. Venerable Ajahn Oon and I conscientiously made the effort to go regularly to see him and listen to his Dhamma talks. This Rains Retreat I was again without any responsibilities except continuing with my own meditation practice. All other tasks, such as receiving any guests, I had handed over to Ven. Ajahn Oon. Previously he had been a teacher in the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | During this Rains Retreat a sad event concerning Ven. Ajahn Tah took place. He was one of the more senior monks and, I think I am right in saying, he was also Ven. Ajahn Mun's very first disciple. I think he had been a monk for about sixteen or seventeen years. Originally he had gone to undertake studies in Bangkok but was unable to complete them. He had heard of Ven. Ajahn Mun's good reputation from the frequent extolling by //Ven. Chao Khun Phra Upali (Chan Siricando)// | ||
+ | |||
+ | This year, Ven. Ajahn Tah had gone with Ven. Ajahn Khan to spend the Rains Retreat in the Pah Bing Cave in Loei Province. While there he had become unbalanced< | ||
+ | |||
+ | One of Ven. Ajahn Tah's tribulations concerned what had occurred some time previously, when he had gone to develop his meditation near the village of Pone Sawang. His samadhi had become strong and this had brought great brightness to the mind. Any Dhamma issue that he brought up for investigation seemed to be totally cleared up and then the heart would converge to one-pointedness. This made him believe that: //"I have come to the end of the Holy Life" | ||
+ | |||
+ | Although people explained to him that there was definitely no offence because he had made his claim through mistaken assumptions and misinterpretations, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Witnessing all this really made my heart sink and I felt downhearted and saddened. I reflected that if such a senior, long-practiced monk could still become mentally unstable, what about me? What could I do to avoid such unbalance? These thoughts made me so apprehensive and fearful for my own well-being that I revealed my anxieties to Ven. Ajahn Mun. He told me: " | ||
+ | |||
+ | After the Rains Retreat had ended, Ven. Ajahn Mun and his party set out to walk down towards Sakhon Nakorn. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 11.1 Returning Home to Assist my Mother, Uncle and Brother ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | I had been thinking of my mother and so I returned home in order to assist her. I think I was successful in this respect, for I recommended that she observe the Eight Precepts and dress in white. On this occasion, my aunt, uncle and my elder brother were also all inspired with faith and determined to keep the Eight Precepts and wear white. This was especially so with my elder brother, for he left his wife and a newly born son of only a few months to ordain as a monk. I had them leave their village and follow the senior monks so that they could become better acquainted with Dhamma companions and receive training from many different meditation teachers. I followed along later with my brother and uncle, catching up with them at the village of Plah Lo, Phannah Nikom District, where Ven. Ajahn Singh had spent the Rains Retreat. He led our group on to establish a temporary base near the village of Ahgaht Amnoy. Not long after our arrival there, Ven. Ajahn Mun came to join us and he had me go on with him to set up a base near the village of Sahm Pong. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Living in close association with such senior monks was very good for me. It forces one to be mindful and alert at all times. One day, the novice who regularly attended on Ven. Ajahn Mun was absent so I took over his duties (// | ||
+ | |||
+ | The climate< | ||
+ | |||
+ | After Venerable Ajahn Mun left that place, Ven. Ajahn Sao took over for three years. I learned later that many monks who stayed on there had died. One was Ven. Ajahn Bhoo-mee who ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 12. Fourth Rains Retreat, 1926 in a Cemetery North of Ahgaht Amnoy District ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | At the approach of the Rains Retreat, I made my way back to the district of Ahgaht Amnoy and stayed just north of the town in a cremation ground.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | During this time there was an outbreak of smallpox among the townspeople. Almost all of them scattered and fled into the surrounding fields and forests to escape the infection. Even the resident monks of the local monastery followed the same route as the lay people, leaving virtually nobody behind who could offer alms for us to eat. This occurred because the residents of Ahgaht Amnoy had never experienced an epidemic of smallpox before. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It was a town of more than a thousand households and only as few as five people had contracted smallpox. However, those who became infected pretended to be healthy to escape detection and by the time they were found out the disease was already well advanced. The procedure for anyone found with symptoms was to move them away into the forest. They were quarantined there in a small bamboo hut built for them, while food was sent out for them to eat. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It was indeed a happy chance that Ven. Ajahn Singh had some knowledge of forest herbs. He was thereby able to bring out some medicinal herbs to use in treating the disease and could tell the townspeople not to cast their sick away in the jungle. The result was that only a few people actually died. When news reached the authorities they came and inoculated everyone. | ||
+ | |||
+ | We were remarkably fortunate that the townspeople retained their deep respect for meditation monks. This meant that although the town had been completely abandoned, they would still stealthily come back in at four or five o' | ||
+ | |||
+ | //I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks and appreciation for the generosity of the townspeople of Ahgaht Amnoy.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | //Such merit and goodwill go beyond life itself for they form a true refuge for the suffering people of this world and the next. When we suffer, if we can't rely on our virtue and past good deeds, what can we depend upon.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | The people of Ahgaht Amnoy were more afraid of smallpox than the tigers of the surrounding jungle. Even neighbours and relatives wouldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | During this Rains Retreat I often went to listen to Ven. Ajahn Singh' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I really did have the utmost respect and reverence for Ven. Ajahn Singh and therefore was always ready to receive his teachings and instructions. Yet why did he say such things about me? Still, what he said about me — my not easily acquiescing to others — was certainly true. I had always been that sort of person, finding anything that seemed illogical or unreasonable difficult to accept. My own opinions were subjected to the same careful checking and if they didn't measure up or lacked foundation I would be absolutely intractable in not accepting them. That's how I was. (I will be explaining more about this character trait later in the book.) | ||
+ | |||
+ | I sat there listening to Venerable Ajahn Singh' | ||
+ | |||
+ | "// | ||
+ | |||
+ | When I actually got down to my meditation practice, nothing in particular seemed to happen. I did, however, examine Ven. Ajahn Singh' | ||
+ | |||
+ | My accelerated exertions brought upset to the bodily ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | At first, it felt as if some huge, looming black form came forward and seated itself on my chest, so that I couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I therefore turned to focus on the condition of those about to die: | ||
+ | |||
+ | The first time, I directed mindfulness so that it was keeping closely aware of the mind, following it to know what happens at death. Mindfulness stayed with the heart right up to the final moment when only the barest awareness remained. A feeling was present that to release that faint degree of awareness would be death. | ||
+ | |||
+ | At this point, the question became whether it would be better for me to let go and allow death to take place. I felt that my heart was currently quite pure and that if I were to let go, I wouldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The second time it happened, I saw no bodily form but rather an enormous dark mass that loomed over me. I knew now for certain that it wasn't a ghost. The cause seemed more connected with the //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | When it happened for a third time, it seemed less intense than before. It was more of a drowsy state and I just determined to get up. For all my readers in this situation, notice your state when you regain consciousness. There should be a heavy-headed dullness and lassitude present. At this point, if you don't take any medicine to balance these //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 12.1 A Formula for Sleeping or not Sleeping ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | At this same period, I tried to uncover and understand the condition that exists during the state of sleep. As a rule, we are never aware of the actual moment of falling asleep. It's only upon waking that we come to know that we fell asleep. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Before we fall asleep there will be the state of tiredness, weakness and drowsy dullness of body and mind. The chains of thinking processes become shorter and eventually all awareness of thought-objects is released and we quickly enter what they call sleep. | ||
+ | |||
+ | When we bring in mindfulness to focus on the current condition of that final moment before sleep, we will find that there is only the barest awareness left. It's almost impossible to fix on it, while no mental-objects are left at all. Only the most delicate mindfulness remains present to follow and watch the current condition of the mind arising in that moment. It is like when the mind drops into // | ||
+ | |||
+ | On the other hand, if we wish to sleep, this is achieved by letting go of that final remaining trace of mindfulness and sleep will come with ease and comfort. This way is especially good because one only sleeps for a very short period, so there is no wasting of time. It won't last for more than five or ten minutes. If you have actually established and focussed mindfulness, | ||
+ | |||
+ | If, rather than going to sleep, you just want to rest body and mind, go and find a suitably quiet and peaceful place to rest in. It can either be somewhere completely secluded or among other people. Lie down, stretch out, relax and be comfortable without tensing any part of the body. Then settle the mind on a single object in that condition of letting go. Let it just remain alone in emptiness for a while, and, on getting up, you will feel in all respects as if you had been sleeping for four or five hours. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This word //sleep.// In truth, the mind doesn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | That object steadily becomes ever more refined — as does mindfulness and the heart — until all feelings and thoughts completely cease due to the strength of the meditator' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Lord Buddha called this ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The meditator can withdraw from the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | // | ||
+ | |||
+ | Thus, before the Lord Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The question might arise here: "So! Why is this old monk going on about the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | In truth, anyone who attains to //the cessation of perception and feeling,// or to //Path, Fruit and Nibbana,// or to the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | At the moment of realizing such states there is no hope of making up assumptions and formulations about them. Only after transcending those conditions can one recollect and systematically check back over their successive stages and development. Once having worked it out one will then be able to formulate and set out all aspects of these states. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It's not always necessary for the person who explains about these things to have actually reached those levels. When the Teachings have been set down and their essential meaning established, | ||
+ | |||
+ | People listen, yet even though they all may be listening to the same theme, to the same points, many will understand in quite different ways, from different angles. Furthermore, | ||
+ | |||
+ | "So why do you come along finding fault and only condemning me? It's simply not fair." | ||
+ | |||
+ | Please excuse this digression into the //nether realms.//< | ||
+ | |||
+ | With the end of the Rains Retreat, Ven. Ajahn Singh led our party to the village of Sahm Pong. It was the customary practice for us all to gather and pay our respects to the Ven. Ajahn Mun. On our way there, I related to Ven. Ajahn Singh all my recent experiences and thoughts about the //pee-um// and sleep. He made no response at all, remaining quite silent. When we arrived, however, he proceeded to relate this matter to Ven. Ajahn Mun. At that moment, I was sitting a little apart from them so I don't know what he said about my experiences — I couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Almost one hundred monks and novices gathered to pay their respects to the Venerable Elders and Senior Ajahns, and it was considered quite an event for those times. After it was over, Ven. Ajahn Mun had me, with one other monk and a novice, accompany him to the village of Kah Non Daeng. This was where the Ven. Ajahn Oon, Ven. Ajahn Goo and Ven. Ajahn Fan had spent the Rains Retreat. We stayed there for three days and Ven. Ajahn Mun related to the group about my practice with sleeping and not-sleeping. Everyone remained silent, without comment. This was particularly so with Ven. Ajahn Oon who previously had discussed this very topic with me, when I was still unable to do it. | ||
+ | |||
+ | During the time that Ven. Ajahn Mun resided at the forest monastery of Sahm Pong, he would give daily Dhamma talks. If anyone was feeling despondent or irresolute, or someone had fallen ill, he directed his talk like this: | ||
+ | |||
+ | //"So then, it isn't fear of death that you have but a desire to die many times."// | ||
+ | |||
+ | As soon as Ven. Ajahn Mun departed, no one was left in the monastery to continue to give Dhamma talks. The morale and strength of heart of his disciples thereby drained away and no one was able to carry on living there. The ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | When this group of monks caught up with us again, Ven. Ajahn Mun made an observation about our ranging farther afield through secluded places, so that we could spread the Dhamma even more widely. He continued by pointing out that we had already traveled throughout much of the three or four provinces of this region. These were Sakhon Nakorn, Udorn-thani, | ||
+ | |||
+ | It was necessary for me to accompany my mother on her journey back home and so I was not able to go with Ven. Ajahn Mun. It was on this trip that Ven. Ajahn Mun and his party encountered major upheavals. There were both good and bad results from this: | ||
+ | |||
+ | The good side was an increase in the number of forest monasteries for Kammatthana forest monks, which up to then had not existed at all. This was the occasion when forest monks for the first time permanently settled Ubon Province. From that time forward it has continued to spread out until today there are monasteries with // | ||
+ | |||
+ | The negative side was the deterioration in the quality of the monks' practice. In fact, the decline this time...< | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 13. Fifth Rains Retreat, 1927 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | I returned to spend the Rains Retreat for a second time at Nah Chang Nam Village. Meanwhile, my elder brother went for the Rains to Nah Seedah Village with our father. After the Retreat had ended, I took my brother and we went to develop our meditation practice in the cave called Phra Nah Phak Hork. Sometime after this, my brother went back down to find Venerable Ajahn Sao who had spent the Rains Retreat in Nakorn Panom Province. It was after this Rains Retreat that my brother went forth as a monk at Wat Srii Thep. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 14. Sixth Rains Retreat, 1928 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | I brought my father to come and stay with me in the Phra Nah Phak Hork Cave. It was the first time in the eleven years since his ordination into //white robes//< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Yet when circumstances come together and the time is ripe, untoward things can come upon us. That is to say, my father fell ill. His children and grandchildren saw only the hardship of his situation — when intense pain came during the night time, who would look after him? For there were only the two of us, father and son, staying up in the cave. So the family came and carried him off down to the village so that they could attend to him there. He refused, however, to go back to stay in the village monastery where he had been before. Instead, he had them set him up in his shack in the middle of the rice fields. I often went down to encourage his constant attention towards Dhamma. | ||
+ | |||
+ | That was the year when something quite miraculous arose connected with my father. The rice seedlings in the villagers' | ||
+ | |||
+ | On that particular day I had gone to instruct my father. I had reminded him of Dhamma and offered him strategies to use in his meditation and investigations, | ||
+ | |||
+ | I had been living by myself in the cave before my father came to join me, and after his death I found myself alone again. To have the opportunity for this sort of solitude is rare and I determined in my heart to make the most of it: 'In the same way as someone offers flowers in reverence to the Buddha — may my life, may the flesh and blood of this body, may the tasks and duties I undertake, may they all become my offering and //puuja// to the Triple Gem.' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Thus resolved, I got down to intensifying my meditation practice with strength and determination. I established and set mindfulness within the heart, not allowing any thoughts or imaginings to be directed outside. Everything was to remain wholly within an inner calm and stillness, all day and all night. The setting of mindfulness before sleep should be the same on awakening. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sometimes, it even happened that although I was asleep and aware of the fact, I was unable to get up. It took some effort on my part to move the body and by that come back to waking consciousness again. My own understanding at that time was that the stilled, one-pointed heart, didn't allow thoughts to careen away externally and so would definitely be able to transcend every bit of suffering. I thought that wisdom' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I therefore did not try to use wisdom in an examination of, for example, the //body and sense impressions//< | ||
+ | |||
+ | I applied myself to walking meditation until my feet were split and bloody. Then I came down with a fever that persisted throughout the Rains Retreat, but I wasn't going to slacken off my meditation efforts. I had once read accounts of some Elder-monks in times gone by who had walked in meditation until their feet had split and //broken.// However, I had found this quite hard to believe. I had supposed that the use here of this particular verb //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Actually, the same Pali word is used to render both //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | When the Rains Retreat was over, I retraced my steps and went to find my brother and the Ven. Ajahn Sao in Nakorn Panom. I went because I had been separated from all my Dhamma companions and meditation teachers for more than two years. Ever since Ven. Ajahn Sao and Ven. Ajahn Mun and company had left Tah Bor District, I had been the sole monk of our group to remain in the area. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 14.1 The Affair of Luang Dtah Mun ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | At that time, Luang Dtah Mun<span notetag # | ||
+ | |||
+ | After continually hearing things like this, nobody could be bothered to speak to him anymore. If they did try, they couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | It was during that Rains Retreat that a dispute arose between him and the monks in the monastery of Glahng Yai Village. These monks surreptitiously approached me with an invitation to come down from the cave to clear up and settle the conflict. As soon as I arrived, he reversed his position and dropped the quarrel. Yet he repeated this kind of dispute and prevarication so often that all the local monks were totally disgusted with him. Perhaps one can use the Southern Thai phrase: //'he had gone crazy for fame and celebrity' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Then came the final day of the Rains Retreat, the //Pavarana Day.// This is a traditional time for ceremonial offerings so they went and invited Luang Dtah Mun to come and join in the sermon-giving. Likewise, they came and invited me, although they didn't mention that to him. By the time I got to the village there wasn't a person to be seen for they were all already waiting for me at the village monastery. This was unusual, for on a normal day when they knew I was coming, all the villagers tended to come out and wait, lining both sides of the road.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | When Luang Dtah Mun's sermon was over, I convened a meeting of all the gathered monks to discuss the points he had brought up. He had said that chanting our praise to the Buddha by starting with //" | ||
+ | |||
+ | It was at this point that Luang Dtah Mun exploded with anger and said, "If I wasn't an // | ||
+ | |||
+ | "This Luang Dtah has boasted of having attained to supernormal states." | ||
+ | |||
+ | By this time, it was almost evening and the monks were preparing for the //Pavarana Ceremony.// Luang Dtah Mun went into the //Uposatha Hall// to join in the ceremony but the monks refused to allow him to take part< | ||
+ | |||
+ | I didn't immediately return to the cave that evening, but went to sleep at the village monastery in Nah Seedah. Luang Dtah Mun came to see me, panting and gasping for breath, almost unable to put words together. He was sulking and felt so slighted that he was going to flee that very night. He said he was too ashamed and embarrassed to face people and had to leave. I requested him to think again and at least stay until the morning, saying that I had no ill will towards him and had only been speaking according to truth and reason. But he couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Finally he did disrobe and quietly locked himself away in his former wife's bedroom. It was many days before he dared show his face again. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I've included these rather ancillary episodes in this autobiography to make it more comprehensive. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 14.2 Concerning Luang Dtee-a Tong In ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | After relating those more tangential stories, I now want to get back to essential matters. Luang Dtee-a Tong In was originally from Korat Province, of the village of Koke Jor Hor. He moved to run a business in Tah Bor where he became a prosperous and prominent merchant, well known throughout the area. He and his wife were both pious Buddhists and the people of Tah Bor came to know about the keeping of the lay precepts through his influence. Luang Dtee-a Tong In donated an orchard to establish a monastery and named it 'Wat Ambavan' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Each year, Luang Dtee-a Tong In's children would gather to make merit and offer gifts to enhance his recovery. It so happened that they invited me to participate in the ceremony, even though I had never set eyes on him before. At that time I had five Rains as a monk and he had seven, making him senior to me by two years. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Luang Dtee-a Tong In told me that his condition made him feel as if he were already dead. I replied, "when the person' | ||
+ | |||
+ | (Normally, when he was feeling well, he was very diligent with his daily devotions, doing much chanting and reciting of Dhamma verses. It would take him a full seven days to complete a round of his Pali recitations. When senior meditation teachers came to visit, for example, Ven. Ajahn Mun and Ven. Ajahn Sao, he would go out to see them and upon coming away would urge his wife and children to make merit with offerings of gifts and food placed into the alms bowl. That was enough, he said, there was no need to go overboard. Yet his daughter could progress with her meditation practice very well.) | ||
+ | |||
+ | Early the following morning, someone came to invite me to go and see Luang Dtee-a who had something that he wanted to tell me. I said just to wait a few moments, for as soon as I had eaten my meal I would be on my way. On arriving there, he swiftly related to me his wonderful experience: | ||
+ | |||
+ | " | ||
+ | |||
+ | (When the heart has only one object and is one-pointed, | ||
+ | |||
+ | " | ||
+ | |||
+ | Some days later a lay man came to request that I immediately go and see Luang Dtee-a, for he was about to disrobe. I was shocked. What on earth could this be about? Why ever would he want to disrobe, just as he was becoming proficient in meditation? I told the layman to ask him to wait and not to disrobe right away, that as soon as my meal was finished I would go and see him. His hut had two sets of balustrades and so when I arrived there I opened the outer gate and entered, while one of the boys helping to nurse him opened the next gate for me. His hearing my approach proved enough to dispel all his misgivings, "as if they were plucked away". | ||
+ | |||
+ | Luang Dtee-a explained to me what had happened. He said: "I related to my daughter all my various meditation experiences, | ||
+ | |||
+ | I explained to Luang Dtee-a that it certainly wasn't a case of claiming super-normal attainments, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Later, I started to think back to my meditation teachers, and became concerned about my long — two year — absence from them. So I took my leave of him and went off to Nakorn Panom to visit Ven. Ajahn Sao. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 14.3 Staying with the Venerable Ajahn Sao ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Ven. Ajahn Sao generally did not give formal Dhamma sermons and when he did, it would be more in the way of a Dhamma consultation. My going to stay with him that year meant that there would be another monk available to assist him. Ven. Ajahn Toom was already resident there, so the two of us could contribute our energy in assisting Ven. Ajahn Sao in teaching and instructing the lay community. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It was this year when I begged Ven. Ajahn Sao to consent to have his photograph taken as a memento. At first he did not want to, but I pleaded and gave him reasons so that eventually he did acquiesce. I pointed out how essential it would be for his disciples and those of future generations always to have an opportunity to ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I was delighted at having been able to photograph Ven. Ajahn Sao and I gave copies to Ven. Chao Khun Dhammachedi and Phra Khru Siila-samban (who later was given the title Chao Khun Dhamma-saaramunii). The photograph of Ven. Ajahn Sao that I arranged at this time appears to have been the only one ever taken. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Ven. Ajahn Mun was much the same. He always refused to allow photographs to be taken of him for mementos or keepsakes. I had frequently beseeched him to do so but he would reply that the money would be better spent ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | After the Rains Retreat, Ven. Ajahn Sao went wandering, ranging over on the other side of the River Mekong and going to stay in the Som Poi Cave. This was the cave where he and Ven. Ajahn Mun had gone off together when they first went forth in search of solitude. It was a large cavern with a whole series of chambers and many interconnecting passages. There was also a special cabinet for holding the Pali Scriptures, but it was bare of books. I followed him there but by the time I arrived he had already left, going on to stay in another cave. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This was the Tiger' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Ven. Ajahn Sao lived in the mouth of this cave with a couple of monks and novices. There was also an old man who had accompanied them so that he could attend on Ven. Ajahn Sao. This old man used to light a fire at the entrance to the cave where he slept. In the middle of one night, he heard a loud wailing sound but couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Both side walls of this cave were completely smooth making it look something like the interior of a railway carriage. Water dripped down from stalactites into a pool deeper inside the cave and the monks could collect this for drinking. There was no need to filter it because it didn't contain any living creatures.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | I heard news that during World War II, a company of Japanese soldiers had established a hidden camp inside these caves. When the Americans received intelligence reports about this, they went in and bombed the caves. A bomb landed on the cave entrance, sealing it off and causing the many Japanese inside to perish. No one has ever gone and excavated the site. How tragic that is — we have so devalued and wasted human life. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 15. Rains Retreat, 1929, at Nah Sai Village ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | As the Rains Retreat was approaching, | ||
+ | |||
+ | It made me reflect upon the threats and hazards that might lie ahead for both me and for Buddhism overall. Would the order of monks I belong to be able to continue throughout? There might be political disorder, or perhaps enemy forces would invade the country. I might end up conscripted into the army and if not that, then the nation could be enslaved under foreign domination. How could I remain a monk under such circumstances? | ||
+ | |||
+ | Such ponderings filled me with sadness and depression, so that I felt sorry for both myself and the future state of Buddhism. It seemed as if such a state of affairs was just around the corner, just a couple of days away. The more I thought of it, the more lonely and despondent I felt. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Having arrived at this junction, I turned my thoughts to my present situation. The current state of national and political affairs was still good and stable. Meditation Masters were still present and I had already received much training and instruction from them. Having such an opportunity I felt I must hurry and accelerate my meditation practice. Eventually, I would be able to understand the Lord Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | As soon as I had come up with this skillful approach, my heart became resolute and ardent in its meditation exertion. During the Rains Retreat, although I could not actually sit in meditation due to my illness and had to concentrate more on using walking meditation as the main posture, it didn't affect my earnestness. | ||
+ | |||
+ | After the Rains Retreat came news that Ven. Ajahn Singh' | ||
+ | |||
+ | This was the same year that the government issued a proclamation officially prohibiting spirit worship and other animist and occult beliefs. It urged people instead to take refuge in the Triple Gem. The provincial authorities had accordingly mobilized Ven. Ajahn Singh and his group of monks to help in taming the demons and spirits. When I arrived, I found that I too became somewhat involved in this. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 16. Eighth Rains Retreat, 1930 with Ajahn Maha Pin at Phra Kreur Village ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | I had organized the villagers of Phra Kreur Village in the relocating of their monastery from the bank of the village stream to a small rise in the fields on the edge of the Bahn A-ew Mong Lake. Afterwards, Ven. Ajahn Maha Pin came to join me in spending the Rains Retreat there. The other senior monks resident there for the Rains included Ven. Ajahn Poo-mee, Ven. Ajahn Gong Mah, myself and Ven. Ajahn Maha Pin as the head-monk. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Throughout this Rains Retreat, I regularly helped Ven. Ajahn Maha Pin by taking on some teaching responsibilities and sometimes receiving visitors. Every Observance Day<span notetag # | ||
+ | |||
+ | After the Rains Retreat, Ven. Ajahn Poo-mee and his party of monks, together with me, took our leave of Ven. Ajahn Maha Pin. We went off in search of seclusion in the direction of Jote Nong Bua Bahn Village, in the district of Kantara-vichai (Koke Phra) of Mahasarakam Province. At first we were invited to stay next to the school of Nong Waeng Village. While there we could give some Dhamma talks and instruction to the populace until the lay devotees from Jote Nong Bua Bahn Village came and requested us to return to their village. Eventually the site at Nong Waeng became a permanent monastery. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This time, when we returned to Jote Nong Bua Bahn Village, we set ourselves up in some dense jungle by the side of the Dtork Paen Lake. During this period, numerous people came for training in meditation, including many white robed nuns and lay men keeping Eight Precepts. Some of these people achieved quite astonishing results in their meditation. They would sit in meditation in the monastery and know that back in the village their children or grandchildren had been bickering and abusing each other. Those who could meditate would succeed marvellously. There were also some who couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | One day, one monk saw a vision when he was meditating. It concerned a certain young nun who seemed to approach, wishing to touch his feet.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | At the approach of the Rains Retreat, Ven. Ajahn Singh directed that I go and spend the Rains in Phon District. Ven. Ajahn Poo-mee was to take over from where I was staying by Dtork Paen Lake. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 17. Ninth Rains Retreat, 1931 in the District of Phon ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Venerable Gate, my elder brother, came to stay with me during this Rains Retreat. The teaching and instruction of lay people continued as normal, while my personal meditation practice and that of the resident monks and novices kept up a steady pace. An extraordinary incident did occur however, concerning a woman sorceress.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | She replied that 'what she had was good' and that when some spirit mediumistically possessed her, she could be directed to find buried treasure or enabled to leap into a clump of thorny bamboo without being gashed. I responded that that might be all very well for believers, but spirits had never taught their devotees to abandon evil and cultivate good, or to keep the Precepts. The only instructions they ever gave were for the person to make them an offering of the head of a pig, or a chicken or duck. After having prompted this animal sacrifice, they didn't even eat it. One has to kill the animal oneself and offer it to the spirits and when they don't come and eat it then one has to eat it oneself. The spirits will not have to accept the responsibility and the evil consequences of such killing, it will all come back on the one who kills. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In what way are these spirits supposed to help us? After the Lord Buddha had finally passed away, he wasn't reborn as a spirit. He bequeathed his Teachings that taught people to relinquish evil and cultivate what is good, for that is both for their own benefit and for the benefit of others. The //Sangha// conveys those Teachings to us all, according to the path laid down by the Buddha. We have thus been able to know what is wholesome or unwholesome, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The sorceress made up her mind and agreed to abandon her spirit worship and dedicate herself to the Triple Gem. That night, she put the teaching I had given her into practice and obtained marvellous results. That is, before going to bed she chanted her devotions to the Triple Gem and then sat in meditation. She then saw two spirit-children, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Her husband was also a medicine man<span notetag # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Such were the events of that Rains Retreat. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 18. Tenth Rains Retreat in Korat, 1932 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | The forest meditation monks who were disciples of the Ven. Ajahn Mun had never ventured near the province of Nakorn Rajasima (Korat). They had heard reports that the people there were fierce and cruel and had therefore always held back through concern that it wouldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Police Major Luang Charn Nikom, commander of the second company of the Korat town police force, found inspiration and faith in the monks. He donated a plot of land on which to establish a forest monastery beside the rail head at Korat.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Many senior monks were resident there for that Rains Retreat: Ven. Ajahn Fan, Ven. Ajahn Poo-mee, Ven. Ajahn Lou-ei, Ven. Ajahn Gong Mah and myself. Venerable Ajahn Maha Pin was the head monk. Throughout this Rains Retreat, Ven. Ajahn Fan and I were responsible for assisting Ven. Ajahn Maha Pin in receiving visitors and giving sermons and instruction to the laity. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This was the first time that any forest monasteries for meditation monks had been established in Korat. In fact, two were set up in that one year. This was also the year when historic changes took place in Thailand with the ending of the Absolute Monarchy and its replacement by democracy.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | After the Rains Retreat I left with a party of monks who were out seeking secluded places in the direction of Gra Tok District and Ging Cheh. We came back through Gra Tok District again and I supervised the building of a preliminary monastery at Dorn Dtee Klee with the help of the District Officer, Khun Amnart. But before it could be completed, it became necessary for me to return to spend the Rains Retreat in Tah Bor, in Nongkhai Province. I afterwards heard that Ven. Ajahn Singh had sent Ven. Ajahn Lee to spend the Rains Retreat at Gra Tok District in place of me. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 18.1 Reflections and Anxieties that are not Dhamma ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | The weather had been incredibly hot when I was organizing the building of shelters and meditation huts at Wat Pah Salawan in Korat. I don't like hot weather but I had gritted my teeth and endured, persevering in my meditation without let up. I had trained my mindfulness so well that there was stillness and calm throughout day and night. Sometimes it would converge and enter the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | I had been trying to correct this tendency for a long time both by my own efforts and by asking others for help. It had never previously succeeded but this time I found a way out for myself. This was by being ready to apprehend the heart when it was right at the point of convergence into // | ||
+ | |||
+ | The problem will be immediately solved by not allowing the heart to converge towards that tranquillity and pleasure. Putting it simply: forestall the heart' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I had been subject to this state of affairs since I first went off into the forests to meditate and it was only at this time that I could cure myself. If one reckons it all up, that is more than ten years of practice to come to such understanding. Even so, when sense objects impinged on my mind it could still become agitated. What about those people who have no experience of the heart' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I had some doubts about the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | 'The purity of the Path, Fruit and Nibbana — which form the culmination and ultimate goal of Buddhism — probably can no longer be attained. All that is presumably left now is the level of // | ||
+ | |||
+ | One day, my mind converged in an extraordinary way — it totally converged< | ||
+ | |||
+ | When I had the opportunity to ask advice from Ven. Ajahn Singh, he recommended that I concentrate my contemplation much more on the un-beautiful, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The truth is that I had never — right from the very beginning of my meditation practice — been skilled in examining the loathsomeness of the body. That's the truth. In my meditation practice I had always gone straight to focussing on the heart. I had deduced that because the defilements arise in the heart, if the heart doesn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | My interrupting by voicing these doubts brought forth a very loud reaction from Ven. Ajahn Singh, such a response showing the true expression of his character. So what was I to do? I stayed quiet and kept my ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | After a while, Ven. Ajahn Singh softened his voice and he turned and asked me what I now thought. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I stood my ground and said that I still didn't agree. I insisted, respectfully, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Ven. Ajahn Singh then soothed and comforted me, advising me to proceed slowly but surely, as that was the way if things were to develop. Well, that day my heart certainly felt as if it had totally lost everything upon which it could depend. It was as if all ties and attachment to the group were gone. One of Ven. Ajahn Singh' | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 19. Eleventh Rains Retreat, 1932 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | It was during this Rains Retreat that I readied myself to go and seek out Ven. Ajahn Mun in Chiang Mai Province. Throughout this period I was developing my meditation with the same techniques and methods that I had used while staying at Wat Pah Salawan, in Korat. Although I firmly held Ven. Ajahn Mun in mind as the inspiration for my meditation efforts, my heart didn't seem as refined as it once had been. After the end of the Rains Retreat I mentioned to Ven. Ornsee (Sumedho, later Phra Khru Silakan-sangvorn) my intention to go to Chiang Mai Province, following Ven. Ajahn Mun. I asked him if he would like to go with me and that if he would, then we should lay down certain principles: | ||
+ | |||
+ | 1. There should be no grumbling about hardships encountered along the way, for example, difficulties with the journey, food, or shelter. If either of us were eventually to fall ill then we would help each other to the best of our ability — ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | 2. If one of us became homesick for family or friends — for example, for our parents — there should be no abetting or helping the other to go back. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 3. We must be resolved to face death, wherever and however it came. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I told Ven. Ornsee that if he accepted and agreed to abide by these three principles then he could go. However, if he didn't feel able to follow them he certainly shouldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | He said that he was happy with the arrangement and asked to go along. There was also a white robed layman (//chee pa-kao//) who asked to travel with us. | ||
+ | |||
+ | We embarked from Vientiane< | ||
+ | |||
+ | The landscape, though empty of villages, was encompassed with vast stretches of virgin jungle, with rocky outcrops jutting out over the river. Occasionally animals such as monkeys and langurs would make spectacular leaps as they playfully chased each other through the trees. Whenever the boat came closer to the bank, they would all crowd together in troops and gaze down, scrutinizing us. Nowadays, such scenes are difficult to find but just recalling them still evokes in me a feeling of solitude. | ||
+ | |||
+ | On arrival at Nakorn Luang Phra Bahng we sought permission to stay at Wat Mai, the newly built monastery close to the royal palace of the King. This is where they enshrine the Phra Bahng< | ||
+ | |||
+ | After the celebrations were over, we took leave of the abbot and went across to stay at Wat Nong Sa-gaaw. This was situated on a high hill on the opposite bank of the Mekong River,< | ||
+ | |||
+ | In Lampang, we stayed in the garden for visitors to Phra Bart Dtark Phah by the entrance way leading up to the mountain shrine. The //chee pa-kao// accompanying us fell ill while we were there. He had no fever but felt exhausted and weak, and his urine was thick and reddish like water that has been used to rinse meat. We were far from any doctors and so had to resort to the Lord Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | When we arrived at Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai, we enquired about Ven. Ajahn Mun but didn't find out much. Worse than that, some of the monks there even referred to him with dismissive contempt.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 19.1 Risky Encounters of the Monk's Life ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | May I ask here for the indulgence of my readers for what I am about to relate concerns the risky encounters of a monk's life. You may be able to find in it some sort of significance.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Once, when we were stopping over at Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai, I felt very fit and healthy — never before had my health been so good. I assume it was because of the cool climate, which I have always found agreeable. Anyway, I went and had my photograph taken as a memento. Two days later I went back to the shop myself to collect the prints. Just as I was picking up the photographs to examine them, a woman — I'm not sure what sort of person she was — walked up behind me. She asked — in a very familiar manner — for one of the photos and her suggestive behavior seemed flirtatious and provocative. Hearing her speak in such a way gave me a fright, for I had only just arrived in town and didn't know anyone. As soon as I had looked and taken in the situation, I made a completely negative response and she hid her face, turned away and fled. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Hearing such remarks and seeing such behavior came as a very big Dhamma lesson. It made me reflect in a wider way on my previous experiences with women for I had already encountered similar behavior from women many times. Yet I had never shown any interest because I was determined to live my life as a monk in the Dhamma-Vinaya of the Lord Buddha — viewing women only as a danger to the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | For instance, there was once a woman whom I respected as a pious person. She wasn't so young anymore, either. I instructed her about meditation in the same way that I taught other people. Later, she came and told me that whenever she came near to me it felt as if her heart were relieved of its sadness. Sometimes, when a large group of monks came to see me, she would still come and sit there with us for lengthy periods. At that point I realized what she was up to. I tried to teach her to remedy this by meditation, but without success. I then used more intimidating, | ||
+ | |||
+ | In the morning, while I was walking meditation, she strode straight towards me and stopped not far away. She started screaming at me, saying: "Why do you teach meditation like this? You teach people to go crazy! It doesn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The second incident occurred a long time later. I was giving guidance and teachings to lay Buddhists in various places in the rural areas. It all came from a sense of kindness and good intentions with sincere concern, and I managed to ignore any hardship that this caused me personally. I would sometimes still be teaching late into the night — I could manage to go on until midnight or even as late as three in the morning. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I particularly felt sympathy for those young women present who were still without ties or obligations. I wanted them to see the stress involved with their gender, to see that if they kept the precept of chastity purely, after death they would be reborn in a higher realm; or in a male body, for that would allow them to ordain as a novice or monk.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | It was this compassion that became my charismatic charm without me being aware of it. To explain, I had become so popular and respected by so many people that a lot of them — women and men, old and young — came and ordained with me in the forest. Some of them obtained wonderful results in their meditation, evident to themselves and the other members of the group. Those people who couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | One day I had to go off on some business and a nun came up and asked to accompany me on the journey. I wouldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Afterwards, I continued to train the local Buddhist laity in virtue and Dhamma with my efforts being founded on kindness and motivated by a sincere wish for their welfare. I had to pass through many similar minor incidents that might have endangered my following of the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | However, I will say something about an incident that was the most horrifying close call in my life of // | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sometimes, if I had spare time, I would go with a boy,< | ||
+ | |||
+ | This time was no different. She asked the usual question but then continued to talk about her past. She spoke about the time before her marriage when a monk had fallen in love with her but they hadn't married. The marriage to her present husband was an arranged affair, both families having thought it a good match. Their living together wasn't much more than that and she didn't know how much longer they would last together. I just sat listening, assuming that she was confiding in me like this because we were close friends and that she had no ulterior motive. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Yet her behavior did seem strange in the way she was gradually drawing herself closer to me, always edging in closer and closer. Light from the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | She couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | When the boy was awake, we both climbed down the house stairs. As I left I still felt befuddled and extremely ashamed of myself. I was also afraid that my monastic brothers and teachers would get to know what had happened. We arrived back at the monastery about midnight but I lay sleepless right through till dawn, reflecting on what had happened and why. I had somehow escaped those perilous circumstances in a miraculous way. | ||
+ | |||
+ | That young woman stimulated all the remembered incidents from the past that I've been relating here, a stranger who asked for my photograph that day. She certainly gave me the equivalent of a powerful sermon to which to listen. //"Ah, so these are the wiles and ways of women still lost in intoxication with the worldly realm of sensual desire."// | ||
+ | |||
+ | Recollecting my escapes from such frightening situations caused an immense feeling of exhilaration and satisfaction to arise in my heart, so much so that my body was quivering for days afterwards. Later, whenever I was to mention these episodes, those same feelings would arise in me and such a reaction persisted for almost twenty years. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I find it very embarrassing and I don't want bluntly to declare that women pose a threat to the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | Take for example, one of the final sayings of the Lord Buddha. He was replying to Venerable Ananda' | ||
+ | |||
+ | For women who would train their hearts to a purity that transcends all suffering, they should contemplate the dangers of the opposite sex, the male, which forms their object of desire.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | To summarize, acute danger to the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | Any person wishing to go beyond all sensuality must first pick out that very sensuality as something fundamental and as an object of deliberation. This applies especially to the opposite sex who make up the material form on which one hangs the signs of //sexual desire.// Lust and sexual desire are mental qualities that exist in everyone' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The opposite sex or any object stimulating sensual pleasure can thus be turned into something that promotes the conditions necessary for a person to discern the harm of all sensuality. We will then see them as great facilitators in liberating ourselves from the sensual realm.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | All people — whether they are ordained< | ||
+ | |||
+ | I have been discussing all this for the benefit of those who are ordained and who must safeguard their // | ||
+ | |||
+ | When I think about those monks who transgress the Discipline in the most offensive of ways, by involving themselves in things that are regarded as worldly sensuality, namely sexual desire and money.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | I have already led my readers away, cutting through a forest of potent dangers until they must be tired out. So now I'll return to the account of my search for Ven. Ajahn Mun. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 19.2 Following Ven. Ajahn Mun into Burma, 1933 ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | We stayed at Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai town for two or three nights and then took leave of the abbot to continue our journey in search of Ven. Ajahn Mun. After fruitless enquiries at the various small monasteries where he had once stayed, we decided to make absolutely sure and go farther afield beyond Thailand. | ||
+ | |||
+ | We crossed into Burma going via the towns of Muang Hahng, Muang Dtuan, Mork Mai and Rahng Kruer, heading on up to the Phah Hang Hoong Cliffs (Rang Roong) that are close to Muang Pan on the River Salwin. But our hopes were disappointed as there wasn't the slightest sign that he had been that way. The cold weather then proved too much for us and after spending two nights with the Palong hill tribes people we came down off the mountains. Such cold — right in the middle of the March and April Hot Season! We were forced to huddle for warmth around a fire throughout the day and night. What would it have been like in the actual Cold Season or during a particularly cold year? | ||
+ | |||
+ | Ven. Ajahn Mun disappeared into the jungle because of what occurred when the Ven. Chao Khun Phra Upali-gunuupamahjahn (Siricando Chan) felt that he didn't have much longer to live. Ven. Chao Khun Phra Upali' saw there was a need for a suitable senior monk to take charge of Wat Chedi Luang and because of his already great respect for Ven. Ajahn Mun he was inclined to hand over responsibility for the administration of that monastery to him. Ven. Ajahn Mun preferred peace and quiet. He did not wish to get involved in such matters but, in order to respond to Ven. Chao Khun Phra Upali' | ||
+ | |||
+ | For the next two years there had been no news of Ven. Ajahn Mun. That left the two of us, Ven. Ornsee and myself, to seek him out and our wanderings through the forests and mountains were all aimed at this. As long as we stayed within Thailand we felt at home with the various hardships we always had to put up, but as soon as we crossed over the frontier our frustrations and hardships increased a thousandfold. For example, there were different cultural traditions and customs, and the language barrier. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Although we were all supposed to be Buddhist,< | ||
+ | |||
+ | And the paths and trails! In some places we were forced to follow the streams up into mountain valleys, otherwise there were walks along the edge of precipices. On the descent from one such climb I slipped on some rocks and fell, badly gashing my knees. I forced myself to hobble on until we reached the village of Pong Pah Khaem on the Thai-Burmese Border. We then went to stay in the Plong Cave where I could nurse my wounds and recuperate for ten days. | ||
+ | |||
+ | While traveling in Burma< | ||
+ | |||
+ | When the wound in my knee had healed well enough for me to walk, the two of us set out across the mountains of the Morn Ahng Kahng range (where Kahng means //hoo-ang// or the 'Demon Possessed Mountain' | ||
+ | |||
+ | We carried on walking and about half way along the trail we heard the roar of a tiger not far away from us. I was almost frightened to death by the idea of a tiger being so close but I didn't let on to my friend — he had been born and raised in an agriculturally developed area and so didn't know the sound of a tiger. If I had told him, I knew I would instantly draw him into my state of trepidation. Going beyond the range of the tiger' | ||
+ | |||
+ | At the crack of dawn we packed our things, still soaking wet from the dew, and set off again. On the way, I told him that the noise he had heard the previous evening that sounded like the yelping of a dying dog was, in fact, a tiger. It was the roar a tiger makes just after having consumed a full meal, expressing its high spirits. | ||
+ | |||
+ | We carried on walking and by around eight o' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 19.3 A Bad Omen for the Travelers ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Next, something unbelievable occurred — yet it happened. On that day, after having our meal, we were leaving the Dtap Dtow Cave when a barking-deer< | ||
+ | |||
+ | We continued through the rest of the village and were cutting across the fields to join the start of the main trail, when more barking-deer appeared. A pair, male and female, that were among the village herd of water buffalo, spotted us coming along and darted out in front of us again, and again we paid them no notice. However, not long after that we found that although we had started along the right footpath, we had somehow wandered away from it. How was it possible that we could have mistaken our way and ended up on an old neglected trail leading into a side valley? | ||
+ | |||
+ | For about ten hours we were forced to pick our way along the rocky stream bed for the steep mountain slopes rising on both sides forced the path down off the bank. As the climb progressed it became so narrow and the jungle so thick that no sunlight could penetrate. We didn't stop for rests, not even to have a drink of water. When exhaustion began to set in, I proposed to my companion that we retrace our steps and pick up the main path, but he would not agree. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I thought that the head of the stream we were following must be the main drainage source for the surrounding, | ||
+ | |||
+ | As there was no longer any path forward we had to turn back and almost straightaway I mis-stepped on a rock and fell so that it deeply gashed the sole of my foot. Night was approaching so I used my shoulder-cloth< | ||
+ | |||
+ | We reached the summit around seven o' | ||
+ | |||
+ | After seeing the flattened sleeping place of this wild deer so close to the path, it became obvious that we were still a long way from human habitation. As it was already late, we decided to spend the night there and so we each arranged a place to our liking in the thick grassy undergrowth. Yet all night long we were unable to get any sleep. The wind was too strong to hang the mosquito nets from our //krots,// while on the ground it wasn't just termites attacking us, for swarms of ants also came, attracted by the blood from my wound and the sweat of our bodies. We had to wrap cloths around our eyes to prevent the ants from getting in to drink from our tears. | ||
+ | |||
+ | As soon as it was light, we rose and looked back down on the way we had come. Far below we could see the paddy fields as tiny squares. We oriented ourselves and estimated that if we continued straight onwards along the present path, we would probably meet up again with the trail that we had lost. So we cut across jungle and more open forest, following our line of march. How my foot was hurting! Pushing on across the more open, rocky, pebbly ground was almost unbearable but I gritted my teeth for we had to press on as we were still a long way from any village. After quite some time, we did indeed strike the hoped for trail. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Walking along the trail, we eventually reached a village not much before nine o' | ||
+ | |||
+ | A moment or two later someone came out to see us and we related the whole course of events. We thought to ask straight out for something to eat but were afraid this was something blameworthy. So instead we tried to explain indirectly by mentioning that we had not yet eaten anything and that as I had an injured foot going on an alms round wouldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | When I had finished washing the pain in my foot grew so excruciating that I couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Hunger and fatigue now surged in on us. Fortunately I had some herbal medicine for dizziness with me in my shoulder bag and so was able to attend to Venerable Ornsee, but it was well after ten o' | ||
+ | |||
+ | When Venerable Ornsee informed me of the situation, I had him go and bring the two boys to see me and I asked them if they would exchange cooked rice for some matches — we had no other possessions. Each of us had a couple of boxes of matches, and in exchange we got two baskets of sticky rice, two dishes of chili and fermented soya bean paste with two small bunches of steamed vegetables.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | After the meal was over the pain in my foot grew much worse, so much so that my whole leg was inflamed and throbbing. I endured this until just after three o' | ||
+ | |||
+ | That evening we received some good news. Someone came and told us that Ven. Ajahn Mun was staying in the Pah Mi-ang< | ||
+ | |||
+ | We arrived at Ven. Ajahn Mun's place at about four o' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Ven. Ajahn Mun opened by enquiring after our well-being. I then respectfully explained to him: //"the reason it's become necessary for me to seek the Venerable Ajahn out this time, is that I need your help in sorting out my meditation. I have already learned a lot from others in our group, but I'm convinced that// //the Venerable Ajahn is the only one who can resolve it all for me."// | ||
+ | |||
+ | I then proceeded to detail my meditation practice and experiences to him, starting from my very first endeavors right up to those experiences that I had related to Ven. Ajahn Singh in Korat. This led him to describe how he had previously instructed his disciples, in effect suggesting how I should assess the group of disciples whom he had taught: | ||
+ | |||
+ | //"Any monk who follows my way of practice until he becomes skilled and firmly established in it, should progress well and will at least hold his own and succeed. If a monk doesn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | //"In your investigating, | ||
+ | |||
+ | He also told me not to allow the mind to enter the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 20. Twelfth Rains Retreat, 1934 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | As soon as Ven. Ajahn Mun had finished speaking, I made a resolution in my heart: //From that moment I would start again and learn a new way of practice. Right or wrong, I would follow his instructions and let him be the only one to guide me and make the final decisions.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | One can say that from that day forward, my mindfulness was solely directed towards investigating the body. Throughout the day and night, I was now viewing it as loathsome, as made up of the four elements and as a mass of suffering. I intensified my practice without let up or negligence for six months — (I stayed there for the Rains Retreat) — without wearying of it. As a consequence my heart received calmness and peace and a new understanding arose: | ||
+ | |||
+ | //All things of this world are merely the four elements. But we make assumptions (sammati) about them and then go and fall into delusion about our own suppositions. That is why there has to be so much trouble and distress with all these things.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | This new understanding gave great solidity and firmness to my heart, which was very different from how it had been. I became confident that I was now going along the right path but did not inform Ven. Ajahn Mun about this because the firm belief in my new understanding convinced me that I could do that any time. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The weather was so extremely cold that year that we had to sleep by the side of a fire. Although I got a splinter of wood in my hand, no blood flowed because it was so cold. After the Rains Retreat, Ven. Ajahn Mun went down to stay near the village of Toong Ma-khao. The two of us, Venerable Ornsee (now Phra Khru Silakan' | ||
+ | |||
+ | In the middle of one night a tiger approached and sat watching over Ven. Ornsee, who was lying asleep beside the fire. When the fire died down and he began to feel cold he stood up to stoke it up again, at which point the tiger growled and sprang off into the jungle. Being born among the fields he wasn't familiar with the sounds of the jungle tiger and I didn't enlighten him, being concerned that he would become frightened. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sometime later Ven. Ajahn Mun sent a letter telling us to come down to see him. We went to help him with some task for ten days and — what happened? Ah! All my meditation schemes that had seemed so lucid and obvious before were no longer so clear. I was now seeing ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | When the task was completed, Ven. Ajahn Waen and I requested permission from Ven. Ajahn Mun to go off wandering in search of solitude again. Venerable Ornsee stayed behind to attend on Ven. Ajahn Mun. We set off on our journey and after about twelve kilometres< | ||
+ | |||
+ | During the night I heard the roar of a tiger from a nearby mountain top and this helped to concentrate my mind in seclusion. I called up the virtues and qualities of the Lord Buddha as my meditation object< | ||
+ | |||
+ | I thought that by going to live with the Moo-ser and not having a language in common,< | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 20.1 A Distorted View Arises ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | I exerted myself in meditation to the extreme limit of my ability, until a misguided and distorted view (// | ||
+ | |||
+ | //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | This was my rock certain opinion. I was absolutely convinced it was true. | ||
+ | |||
+ | But I did review what the authorized version had to say about it and found, well, that they didn't agree with my opinions. I was unable to settle these two conflicting views and they continually disputed with each other over many days. It was certainly a good thing that I was unwilling to throw out the conventional wisdom, for if I had, the results would have created quite a song and dance.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | As it happened, Ven. Ajahn Sahn sent someone to invite me to come down to receive some offerings and gifts from the lay people. I was in two minds whether or not I should go. However, I then remembered the state of my lower robe. I had already been using it for three years and it might not last through the next Rains Retreat, so I decided to go. Accepting his invitation, I went to renew my robes so that my requisites would be complete and I could then return. On going down they offered me all the things I required and that distorted view seemed completely to disappear of itself. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 21. Thirteenth Rains Retreat, 1935 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | When I had finished cutting, sewing and dyeing the robe, I again went up the mountain. But this time I didn't return to my original spot but went on to the Moo-ser hill tribe village of Poo Phayah. On my arrival, they were more than glad to see me and kindly came together to make a hut for my stay. First though — Ah! — my hopes that the language barrier would probably stop anyone coming to bother me were soon dashed. | ||
+ | |||
+ | When I first arrived, I stayed in one of their abandoned houses. These people had never seen forest //tudong// monks before and the whole village turned out, from the youngest to the oldest, to stare at me. They gawked from far and near, some coming so close as almost to tread on my toes. As one onlooker went, another one came to replace him and it went on from midday until around four in the afternoon. They stood there gawking, and then sat there gawking, then lay down gawking at me. They were dirty and smelled. It was all too much for me and made me feel quite dizzy. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The villagers made me a path for walking meditation. Yet I only had to go out on it for them all to throng after me, so that I ended with a long line behind me strung out the length of the path. This was more than I could handle, so I went inside and sat again. Meanwhile, they continued parading in groups along the path thinking it all great fun. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Afterwards, I was able to come to an understanding with their ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | On reflection, one couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Whenever I was walking through these mountain ranges and saw one or two isolated houses, I could immediately surmise that I wouldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sometime later the Chief came to see me and explained that everyone had faith and wished to offer food on my alms round, but they were embarrassed because they had no rice to give.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | That year the rice crop had been sown but poor rainfall had caused the seedlings to shrivel and turn a pale yellow. The villagers built my hut ten days before the beginning of the Rains Retreat and when it was completed, astonishingly, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Apparently no monks had previously spent the Rains Retreat with the Moo-ser hill tribes people, so that I may possibly have been the first monk in Thailand to have done so. | ||
+ | |||
+ | When they had completed the construction of my hut, I recalled that in the 'Life of the Buddha', | ||
+ | |||
+ | //'I will wholeheartedly accept whatever way my meditation practice leads, even if my life should be lost because of it. May this life of mine be offered, as one would offer a lotus flower, in worship of him.'// | ||
+ | |||
+ | Having made this resolution, I applied myself to my meditation throughout the Rains Retreat. Yet it didn't seem to be progressing and remained firmly as it was before. To bring it up to the level of my resolution, I decided to put myself through a trial by fasting for five days. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Moo-ser had never seen such a thing and were afraid I would die. They came and pleaded with me to partake of food as usual, but I refused and continued for the full five days in accordance with my pledge. They took it in turns surreptitiously to come and watch over me. If I closed my door to sit in meditation inside the room they would call out and ask me to reply, and only when I answered would they leave. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Actually, fasting is not the pathway to Enlightenment. The Lord Buddha had already tried this method and subsequently said that it was more like self-mortification.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | During the Rains Retreat, some visions (// | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Moo-ser would rejoice and boast that: "Your being with us is very good. Our hill-rice fields have produced a bumper harvest; some people will even be able to sell cattle" | ||
+ | |||
+ | At the end of the Rains Retreat, the Chief personally came to offer a //tort phah pah//< | ||
+ | |||
+ | I had to bid farewell to the Moo-ser people so that I could go down to pay my respects to Ven. Ajahn Mun who was at the village of Toong Ma-khao, in the district of Maer Pung. They were all much grieved at my departure and began crying and pleading with me to return. I was still undecided so I told them I would first see what my Ajahn had to say. Perhaps I would then come back. | ||
+ | |||
+ | When I reached Ven. Ajahn Mun and related to him all what had happened while I had been living with the Moo-ser, he was pleased and suggested that we went back there. For the return trip all three of us — Ven. Ajahn Mun, Venerable Ornsee and I — went in a group together. However, when it came time to start climbing, Venerable Ornsee became ill so we told him to wait down below to recuperate first. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 22. Fourteenth Rains Retreat, 1936 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Returning to stay with the Moo-ser people this time made me feel somewhat uneasy because they were now more intimately acquainted with me than with Ven. Ajahn Mun. Moreover, Ven. Ajahn Mun found it difficult to adjust to cold weather. Coming up into the colder atmosphere had affected his health so badly that it appeared that he could probably not stay on. But through his strength of mind and fighting spirit, he was able to overcome this and spend the whole of the Rains Retreat there. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This time around, my meditation went very well because besides being able to use my own techniques, I now also had those of the Ven. Ajahn and I was able to learn from him all the time. Close to the start of the Rains Retreat the Ven. Ajahn sent me down to bring Ven. Ornsee back up to be with us. I was away for five nights and that left the Ven. Ajahn by himself. It was during this period of solitude that he strove in his meditation with absolute and fearless determination and achieved outstanding results. His illness also completely disappeared at the same time. | ||
+ | |||
+ | During this Rains Retreat period the three of us were all resolute in our meditation practice, each of us striving to the limit of our individual ability. We were all so attuned to each other that any happenings — whether concerning external things or connected with the understanding of Dhamma — that occurred to one of us, would seem to be known to all. It was during this Rains Retreat that Ven. Ajahn Mun foretold how long his life would last and this subsequently proved to be accurate. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sometimes, he would bring forward the visions and ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | This Rains Retreat saw Ven. Ajahn Mun teach us using ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Ven. Ajahn Mun frankly opened up his true character to us and I can only count my great good fortune to have been under the guidance of a Meditation Master who taught in such a way. I think it would be difficult to find any other times when he could train his disciples in this way. The appropriate conditions of the people involved, the place and the time could never again be quite so conducive. Although he might have given his blessing and encouragement for me to become an heir to his Dhamma, I have never been heedless and complacently accepted it. I always held that what is true remains true, whatever one might say. One can't go beyond the true state of things. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 22.1 About the Forest People Entering the Village ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | During this Rains Retreat I came across a tribe of forest people who were known as the //Yellow Leaf Spirits.//< | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Moo-ser people said that although they had lived in that place for over fifty years, they had never seen this tribe come near them. They were considered a tribe of ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | //Their existence// didn't rely on any permanent settlement. They cut a few small tree trunks to act as posts, then covered those with branches, leaves and whatever they could find. It was enough to sleep in and find some shelter from rain and dew. Sometimes they would sleep in caves or under rock overhangs or trees. The base of a tree sufficed for them even if it offered only a little shelter. | ||
+ | |||
+ | These forest people had no clothing except a few items that they had solicited for covering their nakedness when they entered a village.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | The tribe would stay for a long time wherever there was a plentiful food supply but once the food ran out they would migrate elsewhere. That is why they were known as the Yellow Leaf Spirits, for when the leaves covering their shelters turned yellow they would move on. | ||
+ | |||
+ | //Their food and diet// were based on animal meat, wild forest yams and tubers, and honey from wild bee hives. They wouldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | They lit their fires by striking a piece of iron against a stone — (what we call the ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | //Their way of hunting// used spears, the ends of which were poisoned (with toxic sap).< | ||
+ | |||
+ | They said that within a range of twenty to thirty metres, they could be sure of their meal. A superficial penetration of the spear meant they could eat the meat but if it went in more than one inch all the meat would become contaminated by the poison and be rendered inedible. | ||
+ | |||
+ | They once came and offered us some of their meat. It had an offensive, rank smell arising from the smoke where it had been roasted. They put it in the fork of some tree branches about ten metres away and its rank and putrid smell almost kept us awake the whole night. Ven. Ajahn Mun told the Moo-ser to take it and try boiling it, but nearly half of it proved to be dirt and so it couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | //Their tradition and customs// were based in the forest and they never really left it. The only time people ever caught sight of them was when they ventured out to ask for clothing, rice, salt or iron for their flints. The ancestors of this tribe, as I understand it, were probably fugitives< | ||
+ | |||
+ | This also applies to what I've already said about the women — that if they should catch sight of any stranger a tiger would eat them. When the men came in to ask for rice, wheat or yams and taro, they would immediately eat everything without leaving any. I told them to take some back to share with their women folk. However, they replied that they couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Whenever they came among the Moo-ser their behavior betrayed their inherent fear of strangers, especially of important people or officials. They walked slowly and cautiously, always wary and alert in a quite pitiful way. However, when they entered the jungle they became so swift and agile that following them was difficult for the eye. All one would see and hear were the stirring and rustling of the leaves. | ||
+ | |||
+ | //Their marriage customs// gave individual freedom to both the women and the men. For example, as elsewhere, it was common that when a man had good luck and was prospering through successfully bringing in meat and food, any woman attracted to him would go and stay with him and become his partner. I forgot to ask whether there was any dowry involved. The raising of children was the sole responsibility of the woman. | ||
+ | |||
+ | They had come to see me sometimes. I then had an opportunity to question them about many aspects of their lifestyle and so was able to develop a good understanding about them. Whenever I saw these forest people, I felt sympathy and pity because they were also of the same Thai tribe. I could understand every word of their conversation and their physical features were the same as ours in every way. The thought arose deep down in me to find some way to help them to become established in some stable livelihood, or at least to assist them to reach the subsistence level of the Moo-ser and the other hill tribes up in the mountains. If they were willing to receive assistance, I intended to inform the appropriate Government authorities so that they could bring in aid such as tools and supplies — including everything all the way to seedlings and seeds. | ||
+ | |||
+ | When they later came to see me, I sounded them out: "What do you think of the rice, the maize, the taro, the chili and the salt that you have been given to eat? Was it delicious?" | ||
+ | |||
+ | That was as far as I got, for they immediately started to protest that they were a forest people and that they couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | What a shame. Although these people were endowed with priceless humanity, they were unable to take full advantage of it because of their birth in an unsuitable environment. More to be pitied though are some of the people born in an affluent and pleasant environment. They have everything, including education opportunities, | ||
+ | |||
+ | In this Rains Retreat, Ven. Ajahn Mun not only foretold various things but also spoke of the responsibility he would have to shoulder concerning the group of // | ||
+ | |||
+ | " | ||
+ | |||
+ | Ven. Ajahn Mun then recalled a mountain range towards Nah Kaer District of Sakhon Nakorn Province that would certainly make a good and suitable place to stay. He favored those sort of mountains and so declared that it would be the place for us all to go. But he also said that it would have to be my job to act as ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | After the Rains Retreat, Ven. Ajahn Mun went down to the district of Phrao again. (Where, my friends later explained to me, he had also mentioned his plans to the group of monks there.) For our part, Ven. Ornsee and I had requested permission to remain in that area to continue our meditation efforts to our heart' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Venerable Ornsee and I remained meditating in that place until everybody had gone, then we also went our separate ways. Ven. Ornsee staying on there while I went over to another mountain. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 22.2 The Latent Tendencies and Defilements of the Heart ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | What I am about to relate makes me feel quite embarrassed but it will put even greater shame on the defilements. What was it? Well, it happened when I left Ven. Ornsee and went off to stay alone. One day I heard a tiger roar and became so terrified by its noise that I began to tremble and shake so much that I couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | No matter how I tried to sit in meditation, it just didn't seem to come together. At that point I was still unaware that it was all to do with my fear of the tiger. My whole body would be soaked in sweat. " | ||
+ | |||
+ | I sat up and established mindfulness, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Whenever I afterwards heard the tiger' | ||
+ | |||
+ | It is these //latent defilements//< | ||
+ | |||
+ | During this period, when I was fearlessly pressing forward with my practice, something disagreeable came up as a meditation vision. It's something that should be revealed to my readers so that some of the shameful tendencies of the defilements can be exposed. Recognition of the harm of this type of defilement might then perhaps serve as a caution for their future restraint. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The image that appeared was that of a middle-aged woman, someone whom I well remembered from about five or six years previously. She had then been a lay supporter of mine, full of faith and sincere intentions. I considered her a good person, a person of Dhamma, courteous and refined, someone suitable for me to be associated with and a fine example of a genuine // | ||
+ | |||
+ | When the image appeared in my meditation, she seemed to be sitting close to me on my right, in a rather familiar way. There then arose in my heart a spontaneous feeling as if the two of us had been living closely together for what seemed like decades. Yet there was no lust or desire involved in it. This shocked me. I withdrew from meditation and examined my heart but I couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | After a more thorough investigation, | ||
+ | |||
+ | — A person possessing wisdom but lacking faith, energy and dauntless perseverance, | ||
+ | |||
+ | — A person possessing faith, energy, and dauntless perseverance but lacking wisdom, will still be incapable of eliminating it. | ||
+ | |||
+ | — A person possessing faith, energy and dauntless perseverance together with wisdom; and someone who develops meditation by steadily cultivating those virtuous qualities without lapses will be able totally to eliminate the latent tendencies. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I then proceeded to reflect further about those meditators who had successfully achieved all the absorptions< | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Lord Buddha recounted how human beings and animals born into this world, one and all, have been mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, husbands and wives. They have all been relatives to one another — in one or another birth. Perhaps even the poultry and pork that we eat might be the flesh of our father or mother from a previous birth. We still have defilements and so are liable to die and take birth, to die and be born through countless lives. Yet what sort of case is it when a seductive vision arises just once, and one is lured away and goes after it. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Well, now that we have already exposed and shamed Maara,< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Afterwards, I came to reflect on the harm of sensuality, pondering the extent of its fierce severity. When it arises in the underlying personality of anyone it can vent its power and devour its victim. This may happen regardless of whether the person has moral principles or is delinquent, or whether they are seasoned meditators who have reached the highest levels of absorption. The only exceptions being the Lord Buddha and the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | This made me feel a lot more sensitive and open towards that young woman. She had always had wholesome intentions, had hoped to be good yet passion can be so very destructive. It pounces without caring whom its victim is. It is this sensual desire that must bear so much of the blame and is unforgivable. This increased my sympathy and compassion for her. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Those who are still sunk in the depths of the flood of sensual desires must come to birth in the sensual realm. This sensual realm or sphere is a place to develop //spiritual virtues.//< | ||
+ | |||
+ | The sensual realm or plane of existence is endowed with a full complement of natural resources, and all the outer and the inner ones are complete. Persons of wisdom can take advantage of this in whatever way they want. If there are no trees in the forest, where will one go to find herbal medicines? If there are no doctors then such medicines remain useless. If there are medicine and doctor, but the sick patient refuses treatment or will not take the prescription, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Those who see any ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Returning to where I had stayed before, I exchanged places with Ven. Ornsee. It was then that I really did have quite an encounter with a tiger. One night a tiger came and pounced on and began to eat a water buffalo close by my hut. I tried to drive it away by striking a bamboo< | ||
+ | |||
+ | As the two of us had spent enough time meditating in that place, we moved on to other Moo-ser villages scattered along those mountains. After we had spent some time introducing them to Dhamma and inspiring them with faith, we returned down to the district of Phrao. Then we looked around the region of Chiang Dao before returning to Maer Dtaeng District. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 23. Fifteenth Rains Retreat, 1937 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | The small forest monastery at Pong Village was where Ven. Ajahn Mun had once stayed for the Rains Retreat. Ven. Chao Khun Phra Upaaliigu.nuupamaacaariya (Chan Siricando) had also spent some time there. The lay people of this village were quite clever and had a reasonably good understanding of Dhamma. That year's Rains saw five of us staying there: Ven. Ajahn Boon-tham, Venerable Kheung, a monk from Loei Province (whose name I can't recall), Ven. Ajahn Chorp and myself. I was the head monk and so had to choose suitably skillful means to use in my Dhamma talks to the group so that they would gain a solid basis for their future individual Dhamma practice. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In this group it was Ven. Ajahn Chorp who was the most strict in his // | ||
+ | |||
+ | In our group, the monk whom I felt most sorry for was Ven. Ajahn Boon-tham (from Surin Province). He had been a monk for many years but still couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | After the Rains Retreat was over, Ven. Ajahn Mun returned to visit us again and Ven. Ajahn Boon-tham was able to listen to a Dhamma talk. That was all it took, for regrettably it had the opposite effect to what he had expected and he became dissatisfied with the methods of training offered by Ven. Ajahn Mun. Later, perhaps because he felt so let down, he deserted the group and went off wandering alone. However, he met with misfortune and contracted cerebral malaria. Ven. Ajahn Ree-an found him and helped to bear him back to Chiang Mai where he died in the hospital, without any relatives or disciples being around to help nurse him. | ||
+ | |||
+ | After staying to receive teachings from Ven. Ajahn Mun for a suitable length of time, Venerable Kheung and I took our leave to go off in search of solitude and secluded places by following the Maer Dtaeng River upstream. We stayed in a secluded spot near a mountain area of tea plantations. I left Venerable Kheung to watch over our belongings in an abandoned monastery at the foot of the mountain, while I climbed the ridge to find a suitable place to stay above. It happened that a young woman came strolling by flirting with some local young men. Venerable Kheung saw this and he too became intensely excited. When I came back down from my place on the mountain and saw the state he was in I tried to counsel him and recommended various ways he could use to still the emotion — but without success. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I had had an intimation of such a possibility ever since he had first come to stay with me. At that time, he had told me about a vision that he had experienced while staying with Ven. Ajahn Mun in Maer Suay District. He said that hearing about me had inspired him so much that he wished to meet me. He had then had a vision: | ||
+ | |||
+ | 'A road appeared that led straight from him to where I was. He made a trouble-free journey along the road that ended right at the foot of the stairs leading to my hut. He then seemed to catch hold of the stairs and started climbing — they seemed extremely high — up to me. After bowing to me three times, I offered him a complete set of robes but he refused to accept them.' | ||
+ | |||
+ | It seemed that circumstances were beginning to fit in with his vision. I also felt as if our sympathetic association had reached its limit. That morning during the meal, he had lost his temper with me over some insignificant issue. By the evening, he had come to see me and admitted his fault. He related his experience of the previous evening when lust had overcome him at seeing the flirtatious young woman. His meditation throughout the following night had not been successful and he came to take his leave and go off wandering alone. | ||
+ | |||
+ | About three months later, we met again and I encouraged him to make a fresh start with his meditation: "If you have enough determination, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Nevertheless, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The //Six Higher Psychic Powers//< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Venerable Kheung was adept at training his mind to enter tranquillity and he could remain in such a calm state all day and night. While walking around in seemingly quite an ordinary way, in his mind he would feel as if he were walking on air. While at other times he might feel as if he had penetrated into the interior of the earth. Although Ven. Kheung' | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 24. Sixteenth Rains Retreat, 1938 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Nong Doo was a Mon<span notetag # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Whenever the villagers went to a festival or fair he would consecrate and empower some sesame seed oil and give it to them to drink and rub on their bodies. This would make them invulnerable to stabs and blows. When they went to neighbouring village fairs, the other village folk would have to watch out for them very carefully. The villagers from Nong Doo were confident in their Abbot-teacher' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Abbot-teacher was already eighty years old when he was converted from such practices by the teachings of a wandering meditation monk who stayed at his monastery. Remarkably, he was able to gain some insight into the truth of the Dhamma teachings of the Lord Buddha. He then felt such faith in the meditation monk that he could give up his conceited opinions and offer himself as a disciple of the younger monk. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Later, the whole monastery supported by the lay people, decided to change over to become part of the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | I instructed the lay community during this Rains Retreat. This inspired their faith so much that on the Quarter Moon Days they came to the monastery to observe the Eight Precepts in unprecedented numbers. Whole households would lock up the house and come to observe the Eight Precepts and spend the night in the monastery. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Traditionally, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Being a millionaire or a pauper does not stand in the way of gaining the Noble Treasure of one endowed with faith and wisdom. This is why this Noble Treasure surpasses all other wealth. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 25. Seventeenth to Twenty-fifth Rains Retreats, 1939-47 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Before leaving the North I went to pay my respects to Ven. Ajahn Mun. He had spent the Rains Retreat at Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai, at the request of Somdet Phra Maha Virawong. I again took the opportunity to invite him to return to the Northeast, having already submitted one invitation before the Retreat had started. He remarked that he had also received a letter of invitation from Ven. Chao Khun Dhammachedi. In fact, I had been the one who had written to Ven. Chao Khun Dhammachedi suggesting that such an invitation be sent. I had done this after sounding out Ven. Ajahn Mun and sensing that there was a chance that he might be willing to return. When I enquired again about his going back, he said that he would go at the right time. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I then respectfully informed him of my own plans to go back and took leave of him. I explained that I had already been in the Northern region for quite a long time and felt that however things might turn out, I would be able to take care of myself. After writing another letter to Ven. Chao Khun Dhammachedi explaining the situation, I set out. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This time they arranged for a boy to accompany me on my journey, but Ven. Ornsee stayed behind with Ven. Ajahn Mun. When I reached Tah Bor, in Nongkhai Province, I was determined that the group of monks there be trained to be rigorous and conscientious in their practice. However, after attempting this for around three or four years the results were only about 30 or 40 per cent of what they could have been. Later they seemed even less. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I therefore turned more to integrating the study aspects into the practice. Together with that, I also led all the monks in the daily chanting, and afterwards we would practice the rhythmic styles of both // | ||
+ | |||
+ | After I had stayed two Rains Retreats in Wat Araññavaasee — from 1941 to 1942 — I led the lay supporters to build a small monastery on the western side of Glahng Yai Village. It is now a permanent monastery and has continued to have resident monks and novices through each Rains Retreat. They have now named it Wat Nirodha-rangsee. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It was during this period that Ven. Chao Khun Dhammachedi began to take a greater interest in meditation practice and in Venerable Ajahn Mun. In truth, when Ven. Chao Khun Dhammachedi was still a novice — before he had gone off to Bangkok to study — he had been a disciple of Ven. Ajahn Sao and Ven. Ajahn Mun. At that time, however, he had shown no interest in the way of practice. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I think it was probably at the time of the boundary-stone laying ceremony at Wat Bodhisomphorn< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Afterwards, Ven. Chao Khun Dhammachedi sent Ven. Ajahn Oon Dhammadharo to Chiang Mai to invite Ven. Ajahn Mun to return but without success. Ven. Ajahn Oon reported to Ven. Ajahn Mun about his vegetarian practices and this eventually led to quarreling and discord in the group. Ven. Ajahn Mun said that none of the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | I remained at Wat Araññavaasee in Tah Bor for a period approaching nine years. This was a record for my ordained life until then. I had never taken any interest in building work because I considered it an interference and not the task of a recluse. Thinking that one ordained should rather concentrate all his energies on the duties of a recluse. | ||
+ | |||
+ | When I arrived in Wat Araññavaasee I realized that all the dwelling places there were an inheritance from the previous generation of senior monks. //They// had constructed them and //we// all lived in them. I then reflected on those clauses in the monastic Rule where permission is given to repair any existing dwelling places. This led me to feel rather ashamed of myself, for I seemed to have been so busy making use of these resources and merely monitoring this heritage from the previous Teachers. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This was when I began to guide the lay supporters in building projects and I've continued right up to the present day. However, at no point have I gone out and solicited donations for this work. I have always been extremely sensitive about this — if the resources were available the work went forward, if they weren' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Before this extended period at Wat Araññavaasee, | ||
+ | |||
+ | In 1946, Venerable Gate (my elder brother) came to spend the Rains Retreat with us. He died during the Retreat from appendicitis. He had been ordained for fourteen years and was forty-eight years old. Since his ordination — (he was the next eldest to me) — we had never before stayed together for a Rains Retreat. It now seems that our coming together was not a good omen. | ||
+ | |||
+ | When he came, I wasn't giving many sermons to the lay devotees and instead had them meditating quietly on their own. My neurological disorder had grown so much worse that after I took the Dhamma seat to give a sermon, I had no idea what I was talking about — but I could still speak all right. When I finished my sermon, I would ask the listening lay people what I had been speaking about and whether it had made sense. They answered that they could understand it very well. It was just as it had always been. | ||
+ | |||
+ | One day I had a dream in which Venerable Gate and I were walking on //tudong// together through the jungle. We came to a stream and started following the stream bed. The water wasn't very deep, only reaching our waists, yet it didn't appear to wet our robes. I noticed how fresh the water looked and felt like scooping it up in my hands to rinse my mouth out. When I did take a mouthful, I gargled with it and then spat it out — and all my teeth came out with the water! Waking up, I thought that it had really happened. I had to feel in my mouth before I knew it was only a dream. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I had never really believed in the absolute truth of dreams.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | When I refused to believe in the dream, a vision appeared to my inner sight (in the heart). As I've mentioned above, I became ill about four or five days before the full moon of the tenth lunar month, [around September]. It was the time of the traditional festival of Khao Boon Salahk-pat,< | ||
+ | |||
+ | It happened to be an Observance Day but I couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | At around eleven o' | ||
+ | |||
+ | In those days modern-style doctoring had yet to spread widely. If one's stomach was painful, one found some stomachache pills to swallow. We didn't know anything about the appendix. If the stomach pains came from food poisoning or from fermentation and flatulence, they would clear up. If they came from appendicitis they wouldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The pain was almost beyond bearing so that he was tossing about but I never heard him cry out. Finally, he managed to get out a few words. He said that he certainly wouldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | At that time I had begun to feel so weak after caring for him for such an extended period that I had asked leave from everyone to go and rest. A novice then came to call me with news that Venerable Gate had become very weak and fainted. I rushed to see and found that he was lying there without speaking. Coming closer I reminded him of Dhamma and asked if he could hear what I was saying. He replied that he could and this continued until about eight o' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Venerable Gate had been a person of great endurance in times of both sickness and health. It wasn't just the one illness either, for he had also suffered from appendicitis, | ||
+ | |||
+ | After I had arranged his funeral and finished the Rains Retreat of 1947, my mother also passed away. That year had seen the whole village and town come down with infected sores and ulcers and this included my mother who had an ulcer on her shin. Those who were affected had gone for treatment and were all cured except my mother. I fetched the particular medicines that should have been effective in treating her but the problem didn't clear up. The flesh started festering and was suppurating so much that it fell away exposing the bone. There was no pain however. | ||
+ | |||
+ | While my mother was ill in Nah Seedah Village, Glahng Yai Subdistrict of Nongkhai, I had spent the Rains Retreat in Tah Bor District of Nongkhai Province. The block that had made me so incredulous about the validity of my dream abruptly cleared up. The morning after dreaming that all my teeth had fallen out I felt certain that I would have some traveling to do that day. I returned from my alms round and saw someone waiting for me with news that my mother' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Those who mark dreams down as unbelievable, | ||
+ | |||
+ | I nursed my mother as much as I could with both spiritual medicine< | ||
+ | |||
+ | I thus fulfilled the obligations necessary for an ideal son. When her condition had still been stable, she had always thought of me as an adviser. She would consult me if she wanted for anything or if she had any problems, and would adopt any opinion I offered. When she was unwell, I had supported her mindfulness so that sometimes she wouldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 26. Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Rains Retreat, 1948-1949, ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | I had experienced a vision of this mountain while staying in Wat Araññavasee, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The strangest case was that of one old man, more than seventy years old, who with his penchant for drinking liquor all day had been left so destitute that he was dependent on the villagers. They would hire him at fifty //baht// a month to attend on the resident monks, but he wasn't very willing. When I was there, he found such faith that it was no longer necessary to hire him to do the job. Such a wonderful vision had arisen in his meditation that he gave up all alcohol and was even able to take on the Eight Precepts on Observance days. The villagers became so impressed with him that he could go into any house or shop and receive a free meal. This made him even more aware of the benefits of his practice and he continued his attendance on the monks. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Even stranger was the case of a mute person of Tah Chalaep who was also forced to be dependent on the village. I had taught him by sign language to observe the Eight Precepts on the Observance Day and to meditate. This eventually became so wonderfully meaningful to him that he taught other people by sign language to see the harm of drinking alcohol. While meditating at home his mind would become so bright that he was able to view me in the monastery. I've recently heard that this person is alive and has built a monastery by himself, invited monks to stay there and attends on them himself. | ||
+ | |||
+ | For myself, things were also amazing. I was searching out Dhamma that I never could have conceived of, and comprehending Dhamma that I had never known before. The ways and means of the practice were clarified in precise detail, so that I felt confident enough to compose my first book: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | Following my original plans, I continued practicing there for two Rains Retreats. After the end of the second Rains Retreat came news of Ven. Ajahn Mun's illness and I left, full of appreciation for the virtues of this small hill. I went to attend on Ven. Ajahn Mun through his last illness until his passing away. After his cremation had been completed, I never found an opportunity to return to Khao Noi even though the people there had offered me such outstanding support. I sent other monks to go in my place because my own plans were still uncertain. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 26.1 Concerns for a Worrier ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | After the cremation ceremony for Ven. Ajahn Mun was over, I pondered on the situation of our group of meditation monks. Until then, we had only been a small group and among people in general still not well known. We had had backing and support from some highly placed elders. For example, Ven. Chao Khun Phra Upaaliigu.nuupamaacaariya (Chan Siricando) had always come up to assist us. He had taken it upon himself to deal with any issue involving Sangha affairs that affected us. When he died, it was Somdet Phra Maha Virawong (Tisso Oo-an) who looked after this. After he died, Ven. Ajahn Mun Bhuuridatta Thera was already well known and widely respected among the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Then, Ven. Ajahn Mun himself passed away and the group seemed to be left alone. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The senior ecclesiastical elders neither knew many monks of our group nor did they seem likely to take on obligations about us. Later, in fact, monks who were disciples of Ven. Ajahn Mun did steadily become more widely known. (However, at that time I didn't anticipate that some of our remaining senior monks were to become such respected elders of outstanding ability. Therefore, my concerns were probably not very well thought out.) | ||
+ | |||
+ | Such concerns caused me to travel to Bangkok, for should the right occasion present itself, I would be able to construct some bridges with the elders of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. I could listen to their rulings and strategies and get to know their opinions about our group. I set out and stayed at Wat Bahn Jik in Udorn. Then I came to stay with Ven. Ajahn Orn Ñaa.nasiri at Wat Tip' | ||
+ | |||
+ | When I reached Bangkok I had the chance to go and pay my respects to many ecclesiastical elders and could learn the attitude of each towards our group of meditation monks. This allowed me to feel quite confident towards the group' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I wanted to go and look over some of the famous places of meditation practice, for example, those of Rahtburi and Phetburi. I therefore traveled around those places, requesting permission to stay a while and learn from each, before eventually reaching Songkla Province. | ||
+ | |||
+ | At that time, Ven. Khun Siri-tejodom (Ampan) — who had once been a district officer and then had stayed with me — had gone down to Phuket and Phang-nga where he had been spreading Dhamma and the way of practice. He had later been joined in this propagating by Ven. Mahaa Pin Jalito< | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 26.2 First Visit to Phuket Island and a Dangerous Encounter ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | To most people of that time, the island of Phuket was regarded as an isolated place abundant in valuable natural resources and full of millionaires. Other than the business community, most islanders weren' | ||
+ | |||
+ | At that time only a few laborers had come down from the Northeast of Thailand to stay, although the locals feared them as if they were somehow monsters or tigers. This originated in various rumours about Northeasterners, | ||
+ | |||
+ | I had been on the island for a year before all the Northeaster laborers started heading there. They arrived walking in file along the road and became an object of intense interest to the townspeople. Meanwhile, people out on the town's outskirts or in the countryside who saw them coming would flee to the shelter of their homes. Anyone out in the forest ducked and hid themselves in the trees. I didn't witness this with my own eyes but they reported it to me later. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The prosperity of any single region of Thailand didn't seem to me to diverge by more than 5 per cent from any of the others.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | When I first went to stay on Phuket Island, it caused no excitement but it did bring me some painful encounters. I'm referring to what happened about ten days before the start of the Rains Retreat. A party of people together with a group of local monks schemed together to prevent our residing there. They tried various ways to frustrate us: setting fire to our huts, poisoning our food, throwing stones at us and forbidding the people to give us alms food. When we were out on alms round, they would sometimes head straight towards us on a collision course. | ||
+ | |||
+ | As we were the visitors in their territory, we tried to be as conciliatory as possible. We went to see their head and pleaded to be allowed at least to spend the coming Rains Retreat there, for it was already so close. But he wouldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 27. Twenty-eighth Rains Retreat, 1950 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | The end result of these events came when our lay devotees eventually did succeed in arranging places for us to spend the Rains Retreat. Fifteen monks and novices had accompanied me that year, which, with those who had been with me before, made eighteen in all. We divided ourselves between three locations: Dta-gooa Toong, Tai Muang< | ||
+ | |||
+ | It was during this Rains Retreat that we were not only subjected to buffeting from ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | These monks apparently said that anyone who wanted to be enlightened should, "go over to Ajahn Thate!" | ||
+ | |||
+ | The dispute about whether or not we were going to be allowed to stay for the Rains Retreat in that area, wasn't yet finished with. I found out that they had sent a report to the Religious Affairs Department, which accused us of being ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Chief Education Officer of the Province,< | ||
+ | |||
+ | I've related here only a part of what I experienced during my first year's stay in Phang-nga Province. If I were to go into everything, I fear the reader would get bored with such trifling matters. On being born into this world, it becomes inevitable that there will be obstacles to achieving one's goal. Whoever it is, whatever their task, whether it is done for good or ill, decline or progress, it will all depend on their circumspection and perseverance, | ||
+ | |||
+ | With reference to the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | 'The fox accused the lamb: "Hey, you! Why have you muddied my drinking water by walking through it?" | ||
+ | |||
+ | The lamb: " | ||
+ | |||
+ | The fox: "Huh! You may not have muddied my water but your father certainly caused me a lot of trouble." | ||
+ | |||
+ | And with that he pounced on the lamb and ate it up. | ||
+ | |||
+ | //" | ||
+ | |||
+ | After the Rains Retreat was over, we started building a wooden hut for the abbot, but it wasn't completed at that time. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 28. Twenty-ninth to Forty-first Rains Retreat, 1951-63 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | That Chinese New Year, Madame Loei Woon, the wife of Luang Anuphat Phuket-gahn who was proprietor of the Chao Fah Mine, invited us to go to Phuket. There were four of us, Ven. Mahaa Pin Jalito and myself, with two novices. Any suitable opportunity that presented itself was used for searching out and setting up a place for us to stay. Leaving Ven. Mahaa Pin Jalito to organize and finish the building work, I returned to Koke Kloi where I had spent the previous Rains Retreat. We stayed in Phuket for the Rains Retreat. | ||
+ | |||
+ | There were four monks and a novice staying for that Rains Retreat and the monastery was situated at the foot of Dtoh Se Mountain, beside the Provincial Town Hall. At first, our dwellings were made from //nipa palm,//< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Madame Kae had bought those four // | ||
+ | |||
+ | We made little huts in clearings just big enough to sweep around, with narrow paths connecting them. One night, when I opened my hut to go and meet with the others, a tiger noisily jumped away into the forest. Sometimes while we were sitting together having a hot evening drink, we could almost see the perpetrator of the roaring and scratching sound in the nearby trees. In broad daylight the tiger would come and pounce on dogs and cats and eat them up. It was fortunate that it didn't go on the rampage — the tiger kept to its own affairs and we humans did the same. The people of Phuket could not even identify the typical tiger' | ||
+ | |||
+ | We stayed together in Phuket for fifteen years, never returning to spend the Rains Retreat in Phang-nga. However, the monks of our group throughout the three provinces of Phang-nga, Phuket and Krabee came under my leadership. | ||
+ | |||
+ | We all lived as one monastic community, with the same rules and way of practice. A monk or novice from any of our monasteries who was in need of something essential would receive help from those who had things to share and spare. Work at one monastery found everyone else ready and willing to lend a hand in a spirit of harmony. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Donations that came to be offered would be collected and assigned for the maintenance of this or that monastery, while donations given to individuals would be held in a central fund. Being a Preceptor,< | ||
+ | |||
+ | During the time I was resident on Phuket Island, I was always trying to establish and encourage virtue in both myself and among people in general. I maintained contact with all the local administrative head monks and they always responded with generous support towards our group. Any work or business that arose would often bring them in for mutual consultations and we always understood each other very well. | ||
+ | |||
+ | At the entry to the Rains Retreat, I led my group of monks to present each senior elder with offerings of respect. This took place every year without fail and was quite unlike what had happened when we were in Phang-nga. News even came from Phang-nga that it was only Ven. Mahaa Pin Jalito that they disliked, and that they didn't mind our group. I think this arose because of Ven. Mahaa Pin Jalito' | ||
+ | |||
+ | We tried our best to train the lay devotees so that they would know the customs and traditions of Buddhism, making ourselves a model for them to see. We instructed them about keeping the Uposatha Eight Precepts — not just during the Rains Retreat but outside it too. We supported and strengthened the grounding that they had received from previous monks and then trained them in developing meditation every night. The results of this then became clearly visible to each individual, depending on the strength of their faith and dedication to the practice. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Another development was the increasing stream of our group of monks from the Northeast coming down to stay with me. The local youths were also regularly finding enough faith to ordain. Those people in the South who admired and appreciated the way of practice came to be trained in the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | As our numbers increased, I organized the teaching of a regular General Dhamma Studies Course in each monastery. We would all come together at examination time and the first year we went to Wat Maha-that in Nakorn See-dhammaraht Province. In the following years we asked permission to hold the examinations in Wat Chareon Samana-kit in Phuket itself. Each year, those who were examined in all three grades never numbered less than sixty. They passed with good marks too. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Eventually, Mahamakut Monastic College upgraded our status to that of a 'level two center' | ||
+ | |||
+ | We stayed there struggling against various obstacles throughout fifteen years. It was accomplished for the sake of continuing the Buddhist way for the benefit of both the individual and the community overall. It also fulfilled the wishes of the lay supporters of Phuket and Phang-nga who had been so kind and generous to us. At least they were able to become genuinely acquainted with the monks of the Dhammayut' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 28.1 My Apprehensions Seem to be Coming True ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | My apprehensions — those that I expressed in Section 26.1 about the administration of our group — seemed to be coming true. It concerned my making contact with the senior elders in Bangkok before I had gone south, and when, on moving south, I had become acquainted with all the senior monks on the way to my stay on the island of Phuket. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Phuket was renowned as a place that brought great wealth to anyone who went to stay there. They made accusations even against me, saying that I was incredibly rich — of course this was completely untrue. Although I had been in Phuket for fifteen years, I didn't have anything because every penny offered to me, or to any of the monks, went into a central fund that was then all used for building. But in any case, not many dwelling places were built there. In the ten years since I came to the Northeast a much greater number have been completed, together with an Uposatha Hall and a two-storey study hall. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I don't mention this matter out of any disdain for the people of Phuket and Phang-nga, thinking to answer their doubts about my supposed wealth. They had taken such good care of us — as I've already mentioned, they are unequalled anywhere — but the building of monasteries wasn't popular with them. In fact, such a view was good in its own way for if a monastery were to be built in an overly grand and luxurious style, it would then become a burden and worry when one was away. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I departed Phuket Island without any worries, although I did sympathize with the villagers there who had looked after us so well. On departure, I left more than one hundred thousand //baht// for Ven. Phra Khru Sathidabuññaarakkh' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The senior elders in Bangkok and the lay devotees in general took a much greater interest in us when they saw how our groups were settling on Phuket Island. However, I remained unmoved by all this extra attention. I've already explained how encountering obstacles had become quite an ordinary event for me because I had to overcome so many before. | ||
+ | |||
+ | At that time, Wat Mahaa Dhaatu-yuvaraajarangsarit' | ||
+ | |||
+ | At the same time, Wat Raajapraditth', | ||
+ | |||
+ | In 1951, the Ecclesiastical Regional Governor (Dhammayut' | ||
+ | |||
+ | On the thirtieth of May 1953, they appointed me a Preceptor (// | ||
+ | |||
+ | On the fifth of December 1955, I received the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | On the sixteenth of June 1956, I became the Acting Ecclesiastical Provincial Governor (Dhammayut' | ||
+ | |||
+ | On the fifth of December 1957, I received the //title of the ordinary level, the insight category,//< | ||
+ | |||
+ | On the twentieth of August, 1964, I was made full Ecclesiastical Governor of those three provinces. | ||
+ | |||
+ | On the twenty-eighth of November, 1965, I asked to resign from both my administrative governing positions and remained with just an honorary rank. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This may have been the first time — except for the Chao Khun Vipassanaa Koson Thera of Wat Phasee-chareon — that meditation monks received such royal ecclesiastical rank. Before this there had only been the designation without anybody truly taking it on. This can be seen where important elder' | ||
+ | |||
+ | From that time onward, a steady stream of senior meditation Ajahns of the lineage of Ven. Ajahn Mun were to receive ecclesiastical titles. I would, in fact, prefer that these titles were not given to our group of meditating monks because they don't seem appropriate. I once sent a private letter to the senior elders opposing this practice, especially when it concerned the disciples of Ven. Ajahn Mun Bhuuridatta Thera. I had also challenged it when I met them face to face and I referred to what I considered was the appropriate way to go. I had compared it to hanging jewellery around the neck of a monkey — it wouldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | We have all been born into this vast world with its privileges and freedoms. Yet whatever our condition or status, every one of us is liable to be encircled by the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | During the first few years on Phuket Island, things had gone well and my health had been fairly good, but in later years I had become increasingly sensitive to the climate. This followed the normal course of my ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | By 1964, it was time to bid a sympathetic farewell to the tearful people of Phang-nga -Phuket-Krabee, | ||
+ | |||
+ | May all the people of the South who were so kind and supportive of us, may they all, without exception, find only happiness and success, and be blessed with ever growing station, prosperity, long life, health and complete contentment. | ||
+ | |||
+ | May all the monasteries there develop and grow for the benefit of all. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 29. Forty Second Rains Retreat, 1964 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Leaving Phuket Island and being freed of all those burdens, I was determined to follow my old inclinations towards solitude and peace. When visiting Ven. Ajahn Fan in Phannah Nikom District, I went on farther to see his monastery in the Khahm Cave. I was delighted with it and asked his permission to spend one Rains Retreat there. Although the monastery didn't extend over a great area and the mountain wasn't so high,< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Ven. Ajahn Fan had been conscientious, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Some homebound people say that: //" | ||
+ | |||
+ | Yet this is not true because all //four supporting conditions// | ||
+ | |||
+ | During that Rains Retreat I could give full energy to my practice because all the lay devotees and monks had already been well trained by Ven. Ajahn Fan. I therefore was not hampered by having to train them again. Such a steady and uninterrupted development of the practice allows realizations and strategies, directly applicable to oneself, to arise in quite wonderful ways. I didn't need to sit and close my eyes, for meditation was always developing wherever I happened to be. Whatever I took up for examination, | ||
+ | |||
+ | After the Rains Retreat, Ven. Ajahn Khao led a group of his disciples up to visit us for a time. He was also pleased with the place, and even asked me to take over his monastery at Wat Tam Klong Paen so that he could come and stay there himself. But I had already unloaded myself of such burdens and didn't want any more. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Shortly after that, I was invited to attend a funeral in Udorn-thani, | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 30. Forty-third to Fiftieth Rains Retreat, 1965-72 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Hin Mark Peng was well known among the people of those parts for its extreme cold. They had a saying: //"If you don't have a blanket, don't go and sleep at Hin Mark Peng" | ||
+ | |||
+ | About forty years previously, anyone passing by boat would remain deadly silent and not even dare look up.<span notetag # | ||
+ | |||
+ | It also became a place of significance for the law enforcement officers. As the surrounding population started to expand, the wild animals were forced out and gradually disappeared. Smugglers and cattle rustlers then used it as a place for sending contraband across the river. Whenever any water buffalo or cattle went missing, or if news came of smuggling activities, government officers and those who had lost their things would gather there to wait in ambush to recover their property and catch the culprits. Eventually, such a bad reputation also tarnished the neighbouring villages of Koke Soo-ak, Phra Baht and Hooay Hat. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Whenever the old people who were custodians of the local history got together, they would always tend to tell about the future of Hin Mark Peng: "Kings from three cities would come to develop a flourishing Hin Mark Peng". This arose because of those three great rocks lined up together on the bank of the Mekong River. (In fact, they all merge into one mass but from far away it looks as if there are three rocks.) The northern rock (that is the one upstream) would belong to Luang Phra Bahng, the middle rock to Bangkok and the southern rock to Vientiane. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Listening to this made me laugh, for whoever would come and build anything worthwhile in such a place! The jungle there was impenetrable. It was home to wild animals that were still to be found there more than forty years later — towards the end of 1964 — when I first came to check out the place. I both saw and heard the barking deer and partridges, while to my delight overgrown monkeys appeared leaping from branch to branch. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This kind of air and landscape were rare so I was delighted to have discovered such a place. I therefore resolved to come with Ven. Kum Pan and spend the Rains Retreat there. I thought that I would be able to cease all building work and avoid taking on any further commitments. Other people might equate that with confused thinking, but in my heart I truly knew my position: //I had already accomplished much building work. I had not inconsiderably ministered to the group of monks and lay devotees. In the future it was better that I cease with all that and focus all my efforts on the practice — readying myself for death. I had reached an age when one couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I therefore spoke with Ven. Kum Pan about staying with him and taking a restful break. This meant all construction work and such things would be left totally to him, although I would be happy to advise on Dhamma practice. He not only agreed but was happy with this arrangement. He said that finding the material resources to start building was beyond his ability, but that if funds became available he would accept all responsibilities. I told him that something might possibly turn up; however, I would not go out looking for anything. We would accept anything offered and if no one brought things, well, that was all right too. | ||
+ | |||
+ | After the Rains Retreat, Nahng Dtim (of a car spare parts shop) in Vientiane, Por Lee, Maer Pao (Pha) of Koke Soo-ak Village with Nai Prasop-phon, | ||
+ | |||
+ | In 1966 lay people from Bangkok came to visit by boat. The location and surroundings so impressed them that they helped to raise funds to renovate and to build a large wooden Study Sala (//Sala Karn Parien//). It was built in the Thai style with two floors, the lower storey having a veranda on three sides surfaced with concrete. The area of the top floor was seventeen metres by eleven metres, while that of the ground floor was nineteen and a half by sixteen metres. It was all finished on the twentieth of July 1967 at a cost of more than eighty thousand //baht.// The actual labor came mostly from the monks and novices themselves. Ven. Kum Pan was suffering from some eye disease and left for treatment and never returned. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In the same year, the Bangkok devotees sponsored the building of two more huts, while Nai Sakchai and his relatives from Pangkhone market, of Pangkhone District in Sakhon Nakorn Province offered another. Each cost about seven thousand //baht// while monastery funds were used to build another four toilets. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In 1968, a reinforced concrete rain water storage tank was built behind the Study Sala.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | In 1969, a two-storey kuti was built on the bank of the Mekong River... another hut was built... In 1970, a hut was built... and when a storm blew a tree down onto the western veranda of the large Study Sala the authorities repaired this at a cost of twenty thousand //baht.// This year also saw the building of a reinforced concrete rain water tank in the nuns' quarters with dimensions of three by six by two metres... another reinforced concrete rain water tank of similar dimensions... and the area in front of the large study hall was paved... After the Rains Retreat, thirty student monks from Korat came to receive meditation training for five days. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In 1971, another hut was built... together with another six toilets for the nuns' quarters and two more for visitors and a place for visitors to stay... also a reinforced concrete rain water tank in front of the Uposatha Hall... costing thirty thousand //baht.// These projects were all sponsored through the monastery' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I fell ill around the fifth of July 1971, just before the entry to the Rains Retreat. At first it was influenza with a bronchial infection — to which I am susceptible. They sent for the doctor at the local tobacco estate, but I did not improve. Dr. Tawinsree Amornkraisarakit — lady doctor and assistant director of the Nongkhai Provincial Hospital — with Khun Tawan, the provincial economics officer, brought a car to take me for treatment in Nongkhai Provincial Hospital. The doctor treated me for five days but my condition didn't improve. An x-ray showed lung congestion, pleurisy and pneumonia, with an area of infection. Khun Dtoo Khovinta therefore sent a telegram about the situation to Prof. Udom Posakrisna in Bangkok. | ||
+ | |||
+ | When Prof. Udom learned about this, he invited me to go to Bangkok where he would await me at Siriraj Hospital. The lack of specialist care and equipment in Nongkhai required my traveling to Bangkok. Thao Kae Kim Kai and Dr. Somsak, the director of Nongkhai Provincial Hospital, put me on the plane so that they could take me to Siriraj Hospital. I was a patient there under the specialist care of Prof. Udom with Dr. Thira Limsila in regular attendance on me. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I received excellent care and attention from all the doctors. They used suction to bring up a large amount of fluid from the lungs, and during the first week my condition steadily improved. By the second week however, I was beginning to have allergic reactions to the drugs, and then other complications set in. Perhaps this had something to do with an idiosyncratic unease when staying in large buildings. | ||
+ | |||
+ | As my hospitalization extended so my condition deteriorated until my breathing became quite shallow and my voice was reduced to an almost inaudible whisper. The doctors would draw a lot of fluid from my lungs and the condition would ease a little bit, but my general feeling of weakness did not improve. I therefore asked the doctors to allow me to leave the hospital, but they requested that I stay longer. I was not able to do this, and so asked to be discharged from the hospital on the fifteen of August 1971. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This was the period when I became disenchanted with and saw the irksomeness of the body: //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I told Mrs. Kantharat' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Dr. Rote and Dr. Chavadee kept in close contact, bringing me medicine every day, and my condition gradually improved. Examining within myself I realized that I wasn't going to die quite yet — although to other people it might have appeared otherwise. Some fortune tellers were even predicting that I would certainly die within five days. When Prof. Ouay Ketusingh' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Thao Kae Kim Kai hired a special plane to take me back, and it filled up with the monks and lay devotees helping to see me on my way. We arrived at the air field in Nongkhai at almost midday. The Mekong River had just burst its banks and because of the flooding we had to request help from the N.P.K. (The Mekong River Marine Patrol) who were kind enough to lend us a boat from Kong Nang Village. This took us to Wat Hin Mark Peng where we arrived at five o' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Dr. Chavadee had accompanied me and taken care of me all the way back to the monastery, and then stayed on to treat me for another five or six days. When she saw that I was out of danger and improving she traveled back to Bangkok. | ||
+ | |||
+ | While I was ill, whether in Nongkhai Provincial Hospital or in Siriraj Hospital, many monks, novices and lay people — some known to me and some unknown — had come together to show me extraordinary care and concern. This was evident from the throngs that came to visit me every day while I was in Nongkhai Provincial Hospital. Even more so in Siriraj Hospital where such great numbers came that the doctors had to forbid visiting. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Some people who came to visit were not allowed to see me, so they asked instead to be allowed to bow their respects from outside my room. This was amazing. So many people came to visit when I was ill, and yet I hardly knew anyone in Bangkok! Some people who had never seen me before would come in and then burst into tears, even before they had time to bow their respects. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I would therefore like to record here the good will shown by everyone — my appreciation for everyone' | ||
+ | |||
+ | As soon as I was back in the monastery my general condition began steadily to improve. I had eminent and respected visitors come to call on me. My Rains Retreat< | ||
+ | |||
+ | My illness at that time brought great benefit to my meditation practice. When I arrived at Nongkhai Provincial Hospital, my condition was deteriorating so much that I had immediately set about preparing myself for death. I had resolved to let go, not grasping at anything. I had instructed myself: //"You must leave your body and disease in the doctor' | ||
+ | |||
+ | After that my mind was calm and peaceful without any disturbances. | ||
+ | |||
+ | When the doctors had come along and asked how I felt I would answer that I was just fine. Thao Kae Kim Kai had come and carried me off by plane to Bangkok, and I went along with it. I even went as far as Siriraj Hospital, where the doctors had asked about my condition and I had again said that I was 'as good as ever'. However, onlookers might have thought the opposite. My extended stay in the hospital had its effect when I had started to find it tiresome and the days and nights seemed to lengthen. I therefore needed to bring back to mind my original resolution about not holding back but being willing to let go of everything: //" | ||
+ | |||
+ | My resolution towards letting go then settled down in the stillness of the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | The year 1972 saw the start of the construction of the Uposatha Hall. I will give a more detailed account of this in a future section. At the same time we also built a meeting //sala// for the nuns. It was a wooden two-storey structure with concrete posts and an asbestos roof, four metres by nine, with a four meter wide veranda on the ground floor going all the way around... It cost a little over seventy thousand //baht//... | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 31. Fifty-first and Fifty-second Rains Retreat ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | I had helped to relocate the old school of Koke Soo-ak and Phra Bart villages so that it could be connected up to the rear of the new building. This new structure had concrete posts and four class rooms. It cost eighty thousand //baht// but hadn't been fully completed through lack of funds. In 1974 I was able to continue the work by joining up the old and new buildings and partitioning off an office for the head teacher. Underneath I made a reinforced concrete rain water tank of seven by six by two metres. | ||
+ | |||
+ | At the time we were moving the school I also went to set up another dwelling place for monks in the Wang Nam Mork Forest. This was about six kilometres to the west of Wat Hin Mark Peng and still had jungle with mountains, caves and streams. It was therefore ideal for anyone intent on developing their meditation in solitude, and its natural environment was also well worth preserving. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 32. Fifty-third Rains Retreat, 1975 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | A lay person gave about three //rai// of land in Lumpini District. When other donations increased the area to eleven or twelve //rai,// another place for solitude and practice could be set up. Wat Lumpini was the equal of Wang Nam Mork — that I had just established — because streams skirted it on all four sides. It was aimed at those who wished for more solitude, as Wat Hin Mark Peng was becoming less peaceful. | ||
+ | |||
+ | From about 1974 there seems to have been a steadily growing interest among the people of Bangkok and Central Thailand in making contact with the various monasteries in the Northeast. Wat Hin Mark Peng also became more involved in receiving visitors from Bangkok. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In 1975, Somdet Phra Ñaa.nasangworn, | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 33. Fifty-fourth Rains Retreat, 1976-77 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | My trip to foreign lands this time received support and assistance from many parties who were concerned with teaching Dhamma abroad. Besides, I wanted to go and visit both the Thai and foreign monks living over there. They had gone to spread the Dhamma, and I wanted to hearten and encourage them. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It struck me as amusing that, although I was old and had recently been readying myself for death, I found myself preparing to go abroad. Moreover, I didn't even know their language. In fact this trip wasn't completely satisfactory for me as I always bear three things in mind: | ||
+ | |||
+ | If one wants to go to any particular place or region — | ||
+ | |||
+ | 1. One should know their language. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 2. One should know their customs and traditions. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 3. One should know about their livelihood. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This is all concerned with proper social discourse and communication with people. However, the lack of language alone makes the other two points almost moot. Notwithstanding this, I still received ample help with interpretation and liaison from those who were knowledgeable about such things. This gave me such good understanding that the language barriers fell away and almost ceased to be a problem. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I well knew that I was already very old, already advanced in years. Going here and there no longer held any appeal for me — I had already traveled around quite widely — and finding a place to die like Wat Hin Mark Peng seemed ideal indeed. Then Maer Chee Chuang — (from Singapore, who through her faith in Buddhism became a nun, coming to spend the Rains Retreat at Wat Hin Mark Peng) — invited me to visit Singapore, Australia and Indonesia. | ||
+ | |||
+ | She felt with my old age, and the constant stream of visitors coming to see me in the monastery, that I didn't have enough time to rest. Furthermore, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Of more important was that I should clearly consider all possible contingencies. I was elderly and had come to be considered quite a popular figure so that any mishap, or my illness or death, might cause difficulties for other people. This would especially bring criticism down on the one who had made the original invitation, that, "they had taken me away but not looked after me". Even so, she kept up with her efforts aimed at inviting me. These were bolstered when her elder brother — who helped lead the Buddhist Society in Perth, Western Australia — sent a letter inviting me to go and visit the Buddhists there. | ||
+ | |||
+ | After due consideration, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The first reason concerned the lack of senior monks in Indonesia, which, with a population of more than a hundred and thirty million, had ten million Buddhists living among Muslims and Hindus. When someone mentioned this to me, it made me feel really compassionate towards them all. I was also delighted to learn that they liked to meditate. (Every religion in which there is worship of a deity, requires the devotee to sit in peace of heart and focus on the divine being.) | ||
+ | |||
+ | The second reason arose because of the many monks from Indonesia and Australia who had come to ordain with Somdet Phra Ñaa.nasangworn — the present Supreme Patriarch of Thailand — in Wat Bovoranives. Before the beginning of that year's Rains Retreat, the English-born Ven. Dorn (Donald Riches) had taken tapes of my Dhamma talks and photographs to show in Australia. Once he knew that I was going with a party to Australia, his preparations to receive us caused some people to become quite excited at the prospect. There was also a senior Thai monk, Ven. Phra Bunyarit' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The third reason came from my reflection that, in the future, Buddhism would be spreading to many other countries. It might come to be disseminated following the Christian missionizing< | ||
+ | |||
+ | One Indonesian monk, Ven. Sudhammo, who had been ordained at Wat Bovoranives under Somdet Phra Ñaa.nasangworn, | ||
+ | |||
+ | After considering all three reasons for going, I made up my mind: '//In whatever way I can, may the remainder of this life be dedicated to the advancement of Buddhism' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I had, in fact, previously received invitations from various individuals and groups in Bangkok to make a pilgrimage to the Buddhist holy places in India. They offered to look after me and take care of my needs in every way, but I had never accepted. To find the inspiration to go, I had often tried to imagine what such a trip would be like, but my heart always remained indifferent to the idea. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I reflected that India had been the birth place of Buddhism, and that although I may have missed the chance to be born in time to meet the Lord Buddha, and the age when Buddhism was flourishing, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Whoever has the faith and opportunity to go on pilgrimage to the Four Holy Places< | ||
+ | |||
+ | I lack the merit to go there, so I can only esteem and commend them. Anyhow, I would like to take this opportunity to remark how indebted I feel towards the people of India because their soil was the birth place of Buddhism. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Before setting out for foreign lands I went to stay at Air Force Lt. General Payom Yensootjai' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I am just an old monk and I was born in a place with inadequate educational opportunities. On occasion, they have invited me to give Dhamma instruction to highly educated people, and at first I felt quite reticent and embarrassed about it. This does however fit in with the Buddhist principles of not discriminating because of caste or class. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Assessment should be based on right knowledge and good conduct. When a knowledgeable person turns to evil ways, he or she is liable to cause more strife and trouble to the country than the uninformed person who does the same thing. An ignoramus who doesn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Such considerations gave me more self-confidence about teaching, knowing that the more educated my listeners the easier they should be able to understand. The Lord Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Good scholars should only explore and enquire for knowledge that is concerned with weighty, significant issues that may lead to the enrichment of peoples' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 33.1 Singapore — The First Stop ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Our party included Ven. Steven, Ven. Chai Charn, Dr. Chavadee and Maer Chee Chuang. We set out from Bangkok on the seventh of November 1976, reaching Singapore the same day where a welcoming party of devotees received us and showed us all of the city. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Singapore is a small island. It is only thirty kilometres long by twenty-five kilometres wide and with slightly more than three million people on the main and smaller surrounding islands it is densely populated. They have therefore built blocks of flats of ten, twenty or more floors to utilize all available space. Seeing all these high-rise apartment buildings we might imagine all Singaporeans to be rich but in truth they are just the same as in any other country of the world. There are quite ordinary houses with tin roofs or even thatch, just as there are in our villages. | ||
+ | |||
+ | As long as all human beings have defilements of greed, aversion and delusion, every sort of contrast and variety will continue to exist. Although each country' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Lord Buddha continually taught about this, saying that one should have sympathy and pity for one's fellow creatures, always wishing them well through mutual harmony. Everyone wishes this. Yet when one comes to act on the principle, the defilements insidiously veil and cover it up so that one forgets and falls once again for the old delusions... | ||
+ | |||
+ | Singapore< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Besides the tall blocks of flats, the ordinary houses were also all set out in a very orderly, pleasing fashion. Between the houses and along the roadsides were shady trees — all very pleasant and worth seeing. When there was sufficient space between houses — whether it was in the central or outer suburbs — they planted it as a public park, sometimes big and sometimes small, where people could go to sit and relax. The beaches were planted with trees and provided with proper car parking. They liked to plant beautiful varieties of flowers all over the place. Their soil was good, and their climate was blessed with frequent rain that kept their flowers and bushes always green and flourishing. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Although Singapore might be a small, heavily populated island, don't imagine that it lacks jungle. There were conservation areas even in the midst of the city, for an awareness of their scarce resources made them take especially good care of such things. Singapore seemed higher above sea level than Bangkok, and therefore didn't flood so easily and could be more easily kept clean. The inhabitants also conscientiously upheld the laws and regulations. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Whatever the outer circumstances, | ||
+ | |||
+ | For any society to prosper and flourish it requires these four conditions: | ||
+ | |||
+ | 1. The land and terrain are favorable to the people living there. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 2. The leaders and government who lay down the laws are just, being neither too slack nor too oppressive towards the populace. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 3. All the populace helps in keeping and respecting the laws of the land. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 4. The bureaucrats and officials are just and honest. | ||
+ | |||
+ | A society enjoying all four conditions will have full prosperity. A deficiency in one of them means that any prosperity will remain incomplete. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It's out of the question that Bangkok can be made as clean as Singapore because its location is not favorable. It is sinking below sea level — so don't let anyone pretend they can fix Bangkok' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I taught Dhamma and meditation every night of the ten nights that our party remained in Singapore. The meetings would not last more than three hours, with each night between twenty and thirty Singaporeans coming for training. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This teaching of Dhamma was really nothing more than a pointing out of the afflictions and flaws of the worldly life. Anyone capable of seeing the harmful nature of the world can also see Dhamma, because the world and Dhamma are interrelated and interconnected. Whenever I explained Dhamma, the problems of the world always became highlighted on every side. These problems are the same the world over and can be summarized into three issues: | ||
+ | |||
+ | 1. Problems concerning family and livelihood. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 2. Problems about looking for inspiration. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 3. Problems about overcoming and transcending suffering. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It's not surprising that problems of this first category should arise. When there is a world there must also be world-shattering problems. If we fasten something ourselves, we must also be able to untie it! Who else can do it? Unless that is, someone could help by explaining the means of disentanglement. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The fish hooks itself because it // | ||
+ | |||
+ | With the second issue, as long as we still have hopes and dreams we will have to struggle all the way, until every exit has been tried and failed. The manner of the untrained heart is like that of a newly caught wild animal. However much it might stamp and paw the ground, provided that its bindings remain firm and unbroken, it will eventually tire and become still, knowing when it is beaten. We human beings are much the same. When our wishes don't find fulfillment in the object of affection, our heart' | ||
+ | |||
+ | True happiness is that of the quiet and serene mind, without struggle. This will be the experience of anyone who discovers the point of true happiness. Their heart will continue to abide in happiness irrespective of their posture or activity. Although anyone lacking such realization won't be able to appreciate such a possibility — it will be totally beyond their comprehension.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Concerning the third issue, I taught them to review and go over the first two points until they perceived, that apart from the stilled heart, every other kind of happiness was temporary and false. I then instructed them to be diligent in cultivating and developing that happiness, and to continue their analysis until they became skilled. When adept, they would be able to abide as their heart wished, whatever conditions they were subjected to, for with this accomplishment one may abide in freedom either in happiness or pain. | ||
+ | |||
+ | From what I heard from the Singaporeans, | ||
+ | |||
+ | It was admirable how they showed their joy and firm conviction in their understanding of Dhamma. Amazingly, some people seemed instinctively to be keeping the Five Precepts, and practicing samadhi meditation so that insight-knowledge could arise about themselves and others. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 33.2 To Australia ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | We flew out of Singapore for Australia on the seventeenth of November. Our point of entry was Perth and after stopping over there, we carried on to Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra. These were all big cities where there was much interest in Buddhism. If there was a local Buddhist society, they would invite me to teach Dhamma. Whether they were Thai, Lao, Burmese, Sri Lankan or Caucasian, they all gave me an outstanding welcome. All in our party wish to express our great appreciation for this help. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Conversation with a Hindu Leader ==== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | While I was in Perth, a //swami// came to visit. By a swami I mean one ordained in Hinduism who wears robes in color and shape similar to a ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | This swami had already been ordained for forty-five years and was seventy-six years old. He was already waiting for me in the reception room and when he saw me he immediately raised his palms together in //añjali// and gave a friendly welcome. I reciprocated, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Another swami came but he was an ordinary lay person, and unlike the first one wasn't ordained. He was eighty-one years old but his whole appearance was delightful — his complexion and constant smile made him look more like a sixty-one-year-old. He was already waiting for me, and when I came in, he lifted his hands in //añjali// as the first swami had done. He told me that as soon as he saw me he felt great // | ||
+ | |||
+ | After words of welcome I first asked about his religion, just as I had done with the first swami. I begged his pardon< | ||
+ | |||
+ | He said that he didn't adhere to any religion because: //" | ||
+ | |||
+ | Our discussions together were harmonious and well-received by all — Ven. Steven acted as interpreter — and as they were about to depart, they asked permission to bow at my feet for their blessing and good fortune. (It seemed like they had elevated me like some deity!) This caused me some embarrassment because they themselves were so aged, worthy and virtuous. I therefore told them there was no need to bow for our dhammas 'being equal' was already blessing enough. As they left, they kept turning around to face me and making //añjali// repeatedly, clearly showing their respect. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Although one swami was ordained and the other wasn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The first swami told me about slowly repeating the mantra word //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | (According to Buddhist principles this would be <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | "The deity would then disappear leaving a state of emptiness, and this is reaching the Lord Nirandorn."< | ||
+ | |||
+ | (This is the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | The second, unordained swami explained in much the same way, but he didn't refer to a mantra. Perhaps this was a secret of his sect that he didn't want to reveal. However, I do think he used a mantra in the same way as the first because they were of the same sect. He simply said that when one reached the deity, it might manifest as various images, or as a voice that would teach one. He did not speak about the emptiness that remained after such visions and voices had disappeared, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== The Essentials ==== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Those of you who are engaged with all the religions, are you finding this absorbing and enjoyable? What do I mean? Well, I will try to explain and ask your indulgence for my ideas because I have never had opportunity to research the scriptures of any religion other than Buddhism. | ||
+ | |||
+ | They say that one needs a firm faith that the deity exists, although they cannot see the deity' | ||
+ | |||
+ | In Theravaada or Hinayaana Buddhism, the Lord Buddha does have a body, which is that of Prince Siddhattha of the Sakyans. He went forth into the homeless life and with great exertion comprehensively cleansed all impurities and defilements from the heart. He realized Buddhahood through perfecting all the Dhamma virtues. | ||
+ | |||
+ | However it was not merely the body of Phra Siddhattha that became the Lord Buddha. When one has faith and trust in the virtuous qualities of the Lord Buddha, one can receive them into the heart, or incline one's heart out to rest in those wholesome qualities until it becomes fully and firmly established in one-pointedness (// | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Buddhist Teaching would maintain that such manifestations were images or visions — //nimitta// — arising out of meditation, and the sounds would be the clarifying voice of Dhamma. Dhamma — being itself without form — would need to manifest in this way to accommodate to people with bodies. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In summary, every religion or sect teaches its adherents to abandon evil and do good, to receive the virtuous qualities of its deity into their heart, or to give their heart to the deity. The way to reach the deity is the same for each religion. However, when a particular religion' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Some Suggestions for Ven. Mahaa Samai ==== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | During my trip to Australia I was not only able to teach Dhamma to anyone interested but could also exchange views with other monks. This was especially so with Ven. Mahaa Samai who had been sent out by Mahamakut Monastic College to take up residence at Wat Buddharangsee in Sydney. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Although Ven. Mahaa Samai was originally from Champahsak in Laos, he had gone to stay at Wat Sapatoom in Bangkok while still a boy. He had received novice and bhikkhu ordination and passed his grade five Pali examinations from Mahamakut Monastic College, Wat Bovoranives. In 1959 he went to teach general studies for a year in Wat Bodhisomphorn, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Ven. Mahaa Samai could be considered a representative of the Thai Sangha who wished to spread Buddhism to Australasia, | ||
+ | |||
+ | People today all over the world are better educated, especially about a science that is based on investigating the actual truth of things. Christianity teaches reliance on faith and disallows critical analysis of the teachings of one's faith. This conflicts with modern scientific principles, and a pope once even punished someone whose calculations pointed to a spherical world system. Finally however, everyone — including the later popes — has accepted and used that theory right up to today. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Buddhist Teaching gives complete freedom to investigate anything — even the Buddhist Teachings themselves. This is because the principles on which Buddhism is based are far higher than those of science. It doesn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | It's such a pity that although modern people receive a superior education, most of them consider just finishing their course work and securing a degree to be enough. It may not have even crossed the minds of some people that the text books that formed the basis of their course had originated in someone else's understanding — which contained more than they were able to read in their books. Their learning is not something original to their own understanding because true knowledge can only come through individual experience. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Buddhist Teaching calls this //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Anyone aiming for clear insight into the truth of Buddhism needs to combine learning with practice. One or another alone is not enough. In this time of advanced education, it becomes necessary for anyone propagating Buddhism to have trained themselves in both ways. Any deficiency in this, and the results will not be as good as might have been expected. | ||
+ | |||
+ | My further advice to Ven. Mahaa Samai was that he should propagate the whole package. By this, I mean that besides fully keeping the Patimokkha Rule — the small size of the group precluded study classes — the other duties and practices should be maintained. For instance, the //dhutanga practices// — these include the going out on alms round which should also help reduce kitchen expenditures. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The spreading of Buddhism needs study together with practice so that it can put down roots that will endure. Ven. Mahaa Samai and all the monks agreed with all my advice, and decided to carry out such a plan in the future. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I suggested to Ven. Mahaa Samai that there are three criticisms that are most common concerning the spreading of Buddhism in other countries: | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | 1. The monks taking advantage of the lay community by not working but only begging for things. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 2. Theravada Sect monks, unlike the other religions and sects, being ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | 3. Theravada monks who, though they forbid the killing of animals, still eat meat. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | Anyone going out to spread Buddhism will be certain to encounter these criticisms so I advised Ven. Mahaa Samai to prepare suitable replies and explanations. He could then answer instantly any of these criticisms. | ||
+ | |||
+ | An even more dangerous hazard is that those who go to spread Buddhism are unfamiliar with the local ways and customs. This may cause offence during interactions with the local residents and can lead to discouragement and disillusionment, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Reflections Arising from Australia ==== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | As we all know, the history of Australia describes how it had been a wild place with its peoples undeveloped... and how Britain had got rid of its convicts and gangsters by transporting them there... eventually the new people organized themselves and energetically developed agriculture and then supplied raw materials to the expanding industries of the world... until its present prosperity was established... Australia is endowed with many natural mineral resources and an enormous land area, although its population is only thirteen million... They don't just sit back enjoying their prosperity but try to develop it even further. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Let's turn to have a close look at this Thai //City of Angels// of ours. If we go into town, we cannot see a single ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Materials have to be removed and lost from somewhere in order for them to be brought to construct the well-planned and attractive city with its traffic system. It just shows how they take things from here to improve things over there. We come to growth because of food, and yet that involves destroying the lives of other animals and crops. Going along our way, we are only concerned with getting to our destination and have no thought that the base and origin from which we set forth is being left far behind, step following step. Don't just look ahead with your ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== 33.3 Visiting Indonesia ==== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | From Australia we went back to Singapore and on the twenty-fourth of December 1976, continued on to Indonesia. All the people I knew seemed to be there — Ven. Chao Khun Suviirañaa.n', | ||
+ | |||
+ | I visited Buddhist Societies and the Buddhist monasteries that our // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Some Views of Mine ==== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Going around Indonesia I saw venerable sites and objects that had the features of a syncretic religion. I couldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | My thoughts went back to Thailand with its immense wealth of religious objects and sacred Buddhist sites, more numerous even than in Indonesia. However many immense and amazing monuments Indonesia may have, they can't compare with the beauty of our Shrines and Uposatha Halls. Nowhere else in the world are there such inspiring and worthy sites. I am absolutely convinced that if only the Thai people were to study and come to a true understanding of Buddhism, their correct practice would make it impossible for other sects and ideologies to overwhelm and obliterate Buddhism from Thailand. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Ven. Chao Khun Suviirañaa.n', | ||
+ | |||
+ | Many centuries have passed since the first Thai delegation of monks went to spread Buddhism overseas. This present endeavor in Indonesia seems to me to be the most effective and fruitful since Ven. Chao Khun Phra Upali of the Ayutthaya< | ||
+ | |||
+ | At this time, some of the people of Indonesia are finding inspiration again in Buddhism and... totally dedicating themselves to it... even when the monks had been unable to visit, they had formed themselves into Buddhist Societies, and they were all certain that the Buddhist revival would continue into the future... in accordance with a five-hundred-year-old legend. | ||
+ | |||
+ | May all revered and worthy monks spread their loving-kindness towards Indonesia, to reverence the Buddhist religion and recollect the great compassion of the Lord Buddha. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 33.4 Feelings about Going Overseas ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | After traveling around these various countries — Australia, Indonesia and going through Singapore three times — we arrived back in Bangkok on the 24th of January 1977. We had been away for a little over two months. Although this may seem a short period, I certainly found it to be much more valuable than I had expected. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Quite a few people in Singapore and Australia had shown a genuine interest in studying Dhamma. This was most evident in Indonesia where their enthusiasm and earnestness had grown even more following the teaching I had been able to give. After going and witnessing this for myself, I had to feel sympathetic towards them. Though they have few teachers, they manage for the most part to continue with the practice. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I have written about these teachings in //Dhamma Questions and Answers from Abroad,// while a more detailed description of our journey is found in //An Account of Traveling Abroad.// Anyone interested can read about it in these publications.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | The durian fruit< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Among human beings of every gender, age group, race or tongue — and this extends to the animal kingdom — you probably won't find even one who doesn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | This struggle sometimes becomes apparent in the striving for development and progress. Although this development may seem to be a logical advance, with proper inspection, one will find that it is a very one-sided progress. The other side being a fall into degeneration and retrogression. The experience of suffering is of enormous value on the road to progress and development — (it gives the impetus to increasing cleverness so that one can survive). Yet at the same time, and in manifold ways, one brings more turmoil and distress into the world. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I had never gone abroad before, except when I had gone for morning alms round by boat, paddling across the River Mekong to the Laotian city of Vientiane, and then returning to my monastery. Yet here I was, with one foot in the grave, going away with people on an overseas' | ||
+ | |||
+ | All countries are in agreement on the one essential issue — an abhorrence of suffering and the struggle to overcome it. Thus the situation is that neither we nor any other creature wish to suffer, yet we are born encircled by these two conditions. We therefore need to reflect on how we should proceed with our lives regarding the three things that I will explain below. Each of us must live in a right, moral, Dhamma way. The results of misunderstanding this and going astray will not just entail failure to achieve happiness for oneself and others, but will also multiply the suffering and turmoil for both oneself and others. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Whether they are influential, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Family. Society. Livelihood. These three things will advance smoothly in an orderly peaceful way if their development accords with the Dhamma principles for lay people (the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | My journey was facilitated in every way by the management — especially Air Force Lt. General Choo and Khun Supharp Sutthichot' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Approximately two months after our return, the lay people in Singapore invited me to go back to see whether there was a suitable site to build a monastery, as a center for teaching meditation. I went, but although we looked at about ten different sites, none of them seemed suitable. In one way this was a good thing, for if we had indeed built a monastery, the taking care of it would have become an extra burden for me. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 34. Fifty-fifth and Fifty-sixth Rains Retreat, 1977-1978 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | The bodily aggregate is the endlessly turning //wheel of birth and death.//< | ||
+ | |||
+ | It happened again when some newly ordained monks — (medical students< | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 35. Fifty-seventh Rains Retreat up to the Present, 1979-1991 ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Thinking back over those twenty-seven years that I have been in Wat Hin Mark Peng — what a long time it seems! If one were a lay person that would be more than enough time to establish a comfortable position and standard of living. Being an elderly monk, I take care of the monastery, which is the normal role for old monks everywhere. I can no longer get around as I once could, and even if I were able to go, there is no forest left for //tudong// wandering like in the old days. They have cut it all down. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The number of devotees< | ||
+ | |||
+ | When the Four Requisites of clothing, food, shelter and medicine become extravagant and overabundant, | ||
+ | |||
+ | //" | ||
+ | |||
+ | The longer one stays in the same place, the more roots are put down. Lay devotees come to the monastery and notice features that aren't quite perfect or beautiful enough, which inspires them to build more permanent replacement structures that are more attractively designed. | ||
+ | |||
+ | These beautiful buildings then need looking after, for not to do so would be an offence against the monks' Discipline. Need one ask who the caretaker is? It's this old monk of course. Teaching and training all the monks and novices who come here how to sit, to lie down, to eat, to go on alms round and all the various duties and obligations, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== The Virtue and Merit of Buddhism ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | I called to mind my teachers and the great masters of the past, the Lord Buddha being the prime example and how they led and guided the Teaching. The thought arose that I too had managed, step by step, to help guide this development along. My birth as a human being had not been wasted. Furthermore, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Whenever people paid respect or made offerings to me, I always thought: //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I am fully aware of the immense virtue and value of Buddhism. Since my going forth and ordination, it has supported and nurtured me towards becoming a good and virtuous person. The Teaching has never led me to commit the slightest immoral deed. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Yet even so, we are always resisting and being recalcitrant towards it and continuing our evil ways. Our dwelling and sleeping places, our sleeping mat, pillow, and mosquito net, the food we eat — everything we daily pick up and use here, the whole lot belongs to the Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | When we first ordain as monks we are completely dependent on the saffron robe, the emblem of the Noble Ones, which our Preceptor and Teachers bestow on us. (One's Preceptor and Teachers are simply the representatives of the Buddhist Teachings because they have all, without exception, taken refuge in the Triple Gem.) When one has received this matchless apparel, the people bow their respects and support one with floods of offerings. I have been able to survive to the present day because of this Teaching. Buddhism has brought infinite and untold virtue and blessings to me personally, and to all of us in the world. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Coming to live here, wherever I have been before, I have always done whatever I could, provided my health was up to it, to build a basis of solid durable constructions for Buddhism. Now that I am old and don't have enough strength for building projects, lay devotees become inspired to sponsor the constructions that will stand in for me in the future. We have shared any resources that are left over out among other monasteries. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Yet I will never become a slave to bricks, concrete and wood because I know that such materials are just external things. Despite their beauty and stylish design, no matter how many millions they cost, if we behave immorally they all become hollow and completely meaningless. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The true core or heart of Buddhism does not lie in material things, but in individual actions. This has been my guiding principle. The going forth in ordination has been termed // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ... These sorts of building projects< | ||
+ | |||
+ | I think of every project as just a part of the duties of the religion. The resources all come from the devotees for I myself have no wealth. When the work is completed, it benefits Buddhism and brings much merit to the lay devotees. There should be no need to solicit contributions for that only brings annoyance so that people become fatigued with the whole business. I was able to complete all the projects because of donations that came in from all directions, including overseas contributions. Any offerings — such as //Ka.thina and Sangha-daana// | ||
+ | |||
+ | I have never gone out looking for even a penny, but funds have rolled in from all directions. I've become something like a //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Any monk engaging in such management needs to be absolutely sure of his ability and his incorruptibility, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Aiming solely for the benefit of Buddhism and the common good, without taking selfish advantage will be of great fruit, whereas undertaking anything for selfish motives will bring unfortunate results. It will be very damaging if one tries to get something for oneself while pursuing Buddhist projects. This is even more so for some ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 36. Summary ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | It is now about sixty years since I first saw the forest here and it was 1964 when I actually came to live here. I have steadily developed it since that time and you can see the results with your own eyes. The important point being that this all arose through the faith and energy of my disciples, both monks and lay people, who contributed whatever they could — whether labor or money. There are more of them than I can ever hope to mention. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Supreme Patriarch of Thailand (the late Somdet Phra Vaasana Mahaathera) graciously came to officiate at the ceremonial opening of the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | I really hope that Wat Hin Mark Peng may continue to be a place for monks to practice for the long-lasting benefit of Buddhism. Therefore may all of you who have helped in the support of Wat Hin Mark Peng be happy, long prosper and be firmly established in the noble Buddhist Teaching. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I have been a monk now for sixty-eight years and I have tried to practice only for the benefit of myself and others, starting with myself and then carrying this further for the good of others. By this I mean that I could go on //tudong// with great meditation teachers, starting with my very first year as a monk. I was determined to practice following the instruction of my Teachers, and as I had no other responsibilities to occupy me I could apply myself fully to the task. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In later years, I was able to be away from them and therefore had to accept many responsibilities. A group of monks started following me and I had regularly to instruct the lay people. In those days because there were so few forest meditation monks, when lay people saw anyone with a following of monks they would immediately consider him an ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | To be truly of benefit to others requires that one first be of benefit to oneself. One is then able to share what one has with other people. If no one shows interest in receiving it, one hasn't lost anything. This has been part of my practice ever since I was ordained. | ||
+ | |||
+ | On HM the King's birthday on the fifth of December 1990, I received by his order the ecclesiastical title of Ven. Phra Rajanirodharangsee Gambhiirapaññaavisit' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 36.1 The Blessings and Beneficence of Parents ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | We believe that having been born together in this world we all owe each other mutual benefit and welfare. Children are indebted to their parents and parents have new obligations towards their children. Each remembers their debt to the other without any thought of calling it in. The recalling to oneself of one's parental debt will, however, enable one to repay it, according to one's perception of it — for some this will be great, for others small. One got into this form of debt by one's own actions without coercion from anyone else, and so no one else can take it over. | ||
+ | |||
+ | People acknowledge their parental debt in innumerable ways. They recall that from their first until their last day, they had been and always would be cared for with love and devotion in every way. For instance, they had to rely on mother and father in learning how to sit up, to lie down, to stand up, to walk and to talk — for everything. When their parents became angry with them and smacked or caned them, the parents had also held back somewhat, remembering that //" | ||
+ | |||
+ | There is a natural instinct in all beings for parents to love their offspring, and this includes even the animals. They love without thinking or knowing why, or what they can gain from it, and the children respond in the same way. The bonding between animals however is short-lived and only occurs while the offspring are still small, for with maturity it is all lost. Human love and affection knows no end. It endures until death and even beyond. The person who doesn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I'm going to boast a bit here: I was born their son, but my ordination while still young prevented me from providing my parents with the material support that everyone usually gives. However my life as a monk allowed me to sustain and nourish their heart' | ||
+ | |||
+ | When both my parents became older, I returned to teach and fortify their faith until both decided to ordain and wear white robes. (Of course they already had faith. I was able to encourage and reinforce it so that they felt confident enough to ordain.) Their meditation brought them many remarkable experiences that strengthened their faith even more. I taught them about the path to happiness (// | ||
+ | |||
+ | My father was a white robed //chee pa-kao// for eleven years before his passing away, at the age of seventy-seven. My mother was a white-robed nun for seventeen years, and died after my father when she was eighty-two. I taught them right up to their final moments, offering all the advice I possible could, and I really feel that I was able completely to repay my debt to them. I had no other outstanding debts. I organized funeral ceremonies suitable to their position and in accordance with my being a monk. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Being ordained as a Buddhist monk for so long has allowed me to see the changing condition of this aging body with the transformations in the external world. I've seen so many things, both good and bad, and it has greatly expanded my wisdom and knowledge. I don't feel that I have wasted being born into the world with them. I consider that I have been indebted to this world for I have taken its elements of earth, water, fire and air to form a body. In maintaining it I have had to absorb and use the things of the world, for absolutely nothing of it belongs to me. After death everything must be left behind in this world. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Some people never consider such issues and by that fall into unyieldingly grasping hold of things — //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 36.2 Activity that should not to be Performed Kamma that should not to be Made ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | There is //activity that we should not perform,// yet having been born it has to be undertaken. We have been born with this self that is called //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The // | ||
+ | |||
+ | Funeral rites entail the feeding and receiving of guests, lay people and monks, and the finding of offerings for the monks. For those left behind who are not so well off this is no small burden. When they don't have enough, they have to borrow from relatives and friends, and so go further into debt. This sort of debt has absolutely no advantage and brings only loss. Still, anyone who is practicing generosity will treat it as a meritorious deed, which //is// a sort of profit for oneself. However one takes it, it is still //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== 36.3 Coming to Birth — Dying ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Coming to birth and dying are not the same for human beings of this world. In being born there is a sequence dependent on the parents. Whoever is born before is called ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I think that I have completely repaid my debt to my parents who have passed away... I was their youngest son and I've accomplished whatever duties were appropriate for a monk towards them both. Both probably thought the same about this, and wouldn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Ajahn Kumdee Ree-o rahng, my eldest brother, loved me very dearly, and I was sorry that he died when I was away spending the Rains Retreat in Chantaburi Province. I was unable to arrange his funeral in a way commensurate with his love for me. When my other elder brothers and sisters were still alive, I was able to teach them about virtue and Dhamma, each according to their temperament and potential, so that when they were about to die, they had some refuge in the heart. They hadn't wasted their life, for on meeting the Lord Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Mrs. Ahn Prahp-phahn, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Mrs. Naen Chiang-tong, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Mr. Plian Ree-o rahng, my elder brother and the fourth child, passed away in 1972 at the age of eighty. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Mrs. Noo-an Glah Kaeng, my elder sister and the fifth child, passed away in 1973 at the age of seventy-nine. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Ven. Phra Gate, my elder brother and the sixth child, passed away in 1946 at the age of forty-eight with fourteen years as a monk. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Mrs. Thoop Dee-man, my younger sister, passed away on the sixteenth of May 1990 at the age of eight-six. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I made sure that all my brothers and sisters received the complete and proper funeral that they would have expected.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | She seems to have secured good results from her meditation practice that stood her in good stead when she became very ill, in the final part of her life. Her children came and took her away for hospital treatment in Sakhon Nakorn Province. They told me that her mindfulness was good and she was aware right up to the final moments. She had described what she was feeling to her children and grandchildren who were caring for her: that her feet were becoming cold, that the coldness had reached her calves, her knees and her chest. She mindfully concentrated on her chest and her breathing became fainter and fainter and finally everything became still. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Now I have to depend on myself, for all my relatives and Meditation Masters are no longer available. I will continue to do good until no life remains because after death no one else can do either good or evil for us. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This autobiography has now reached my eighty-ninth year and I think I will finish with this much. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====== Translator' | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <div rightalign>< | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | In November 1992, Venerable Ajahn Thate again fell ill with a lung infection. Complications set in with symptoms of heart disease and prostrate problems, and while treatment helped his health was never as strong as before. | ||
+ | |||
+ | As described previously,< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Venerable Ajahn Thate' | ||
+ | |||
+ | However, during May of 1994, Venerable Ajahn Thate' | ||
+ | |||
+ | A few days before the start of the Rains Retreat, Venerable Ajahn Thate spoke privately about his personal affairs. He charged that if he should die his body should first be kept at Wat Tam Khahm but that the cremation should take place at Wat Hin Mark Peng.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Although Venerable Ajahn Thate was obviously frail and in pain during most of the Rains Retreat of 1994, he never complained or displayed any upset. He was a shining example of the good Dhamma practitioner to those monks who were taking care of him. | ||
+ | |||
+ | On the morning of Saturday, 17 December 1994, after some liquidized food and his medicine, Ven. Ajahn Thate was, as usual, taken around in his wheelchair for some ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The attendant monk respectfully suggested to the Venerable Ajahn that he should fix his attention on going to sleep so that he could wake up rested and strong. He nodded in agreement and almost immediately became still. His attendant noticed how easily he had gone to sleep and knowing that he usually slept on his right side< | ||
+ | |||
+ | The monks massaged Venerable Ajahn Thate' | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Venerable Ajahn Thate' | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | An ending of such great dignity and peace perfectly completes a life lived that way. His life had touched many, many, people and this became manifest in the funeral and cremation rites. When news spread about his passing, local monks and villagers immediately started coming to pay their last respects. It was announced that HM the King of Thailand would officially sponsor the funeral rites. | ||
+ | |||
+ | As Venerable Ajahn Thate had previously ordered, his body was first kept at Wat Tam Khahm and then moved to Wat Hin Mark Peng. This is a bigger monastery and so much more appropriate for dealing with the funeral arrangements for the cremation was obviously to be a national event. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The cremation of Venerable Ajahn Thate took place on 8 January, 1996. People from all over Thailand — led by HM the King and the royal family — came to pay their final respects. Each region where the Venerable Ajahn had stayed seemed to be represented — even from overseas — so it was as if even in death he was still able to bring people together. It is estimated that there were ten thousand monks present and many hundreds of thousands of lay people. (The temporary car park was filled with up to thirty thousand vehicles, including many small and large buses from all parts of Thailand.) Yet even with such numbers, it was arranged in a fitting and appropriate way and all accomplished through volunteer help and finance. (There were free food stalls and refreshments, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The good weather allowed the arrangements to proceed smoothly. HM the King honored Venerable Ajahn Thate with royal sponsored funeral rites and the full panoply of ancient custom and ritual. When all was ready, HM the King flew in by helicopter officially to lead the making of offerings and light the cremation fire. The monks followed this, filing past the coffin, then the dignitaries with all the ordinary people who had supported Venerable Ajahn Thate for more than seventy years as a monk. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The actual cremation took place later that night with a full moon shining down on the crematorium, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The next morning, when the fire was cooled, the bones and ashes of Venerable Ajahn Thate were reverently removed and safeguarded as relics. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Thus ends the biography of Venerable Ajahn Thate. It started in a remote village at the beginning of the century and closed more than ninety years later surrounded by hundreds of thousands of disciples, including the King of Thailand. Along the Way, Venerable Ajahn Thate had continually taught and that continues in the practice he inspired and the books and taped talks he left behind — including this book. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Appendixes ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Appendix A Siila: Precepts ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | <div rightalign>< | ||
+ | |||
+ | Anyone — of any religion or none — can appreciate the basic Buddhist guidelines for action and speech. There is no dogma hidden among these precepts for it is a plain and simple way of living without harming or hurting any creature. The other feature to bear in mind is that it is something that the individual accepts voluntarily. No one commands one to receive them. It is the individual' | ||
+ | |||
+ | There are the basic Five Precepts and these become more refined with the Eight Precepts. | ||
+ | |||
+ | These Precepts can be received by simply saying: | ||
+ | |||
+ | "I undertake the training rule/ | ||
+ | |||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * 1) "to abstain from taking life. | ||
+ | * 2) to abstain from taking what is not given. | ||
+ | * 3) to abstain from sexual misconduct. | ||
+ | * 4) to abstain from false speech. | ||
+ | * 5) to abstain from intoxicants causing heedlessness." | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | |||
+ | or: | ||
+ | |||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * 1) "to abstain from taking life. | ||
+ | * 2) to abstain from taking what is not given. | ||
+ | * 3) to abstain from unchastity. | ||
+ | * 4) to abstain from false speech. | ||
+ | * 5) to abstain from intoxicants causing heedlessness. | ||
+ | * 6) to abstain from untimely eating. | ||
+ | * 7) to abstain from dancing, singing, music and unseemly shows, from wearing garlands, smartening with scents, and embellishment with unguents. | ||
+ | * 8) to abstain from the use of high and large luxurious couches." | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Appendix B The Dhamm' Characters as Written by Venerable Ajahn Fan Aacaaro ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | <div rightalign>< | ||
+ | |||
+ | "... In 1982 the compiler brought a copy of her book, // | ||
+ | |||
+ | <span centeralign> | ||
+ | |||
+ | //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | "I wrote down the Thai translation of this text so that my readers can compare and understand its meaning. This Dhamm' alphabet is fast becoming extinct because nobody studies it anymore. Except, that is, for those who were ordained sixty years ago and learned it then. The Thai alphabet was then not so widespread and the monks had to learn the Dhamm' characters. We learned from actually reading the palm leaf manuscripts rather than just learning the vowels and consonants. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The subject matter was always about the Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | In former days, in the time of Wiang-jan (Vientiane), | ||
+ | |||
+ | They called them Dhamm' characters because they were only used for Dhamma, the Teachings of the Lord Buddha. An exception being those monks who disrobed after many years and used their knowledge to gain a living in astrology or herbal medicine. Otherwise, these characters were used to write down magic formula and spells. People then really held the Dhamm' characters to be sacred and supernaturally powerful. They considered them the very teaching of the Lord Buddha and it's true as they thought... | ||
+ | |||
+ | We only studied the Korm characters enough to know what they were about but did not write in them. If they were used in writing, again it was only for the Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Appendix C The Buddhist Order of Monks in Thailand ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Buddhist Order of monks (bhikkhus) has an unbroken lineage of twenty-five centuries. In this world of growth and decay there is often need for reform as standards decline. Such reform historically has happened either through the king inviting knowledgeable monks to come and teach the ignorant monks, or by an internal process. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In the chaos that followed the destruction of the old Thai capital of Ayutthaya, the general standard of the monk's understanding and conduct declined. When Crown Prince Monkut (later to become King Rama IV) became a monk and learned the Pali language, he found that there were great differences between what the texts described and what was actually practiced. A group of monks gathered around him intent on trying to follow more strictly the //vinaya// Discipline. When his son, King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), ascended to the throne, he formally acknowledged this reform group as the Dhammayut' | ||
+ | |||
+ | This book spans the time when this reform movement was spreading, and shows how it also affected the //tudong// monks out in the forests. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Appendix D More Building Projects ===== | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Details of building projects abbreviated in the main text (Section 30) are detailed here: | ||
+ | |||
+ | **//35.1 The Uposatha Hall of Wat Hin Mark Peng//** | ||
+ | |||
+ | Around 1966, Mr. Gong Pewsiri from Koke Soo-ak Village... made a large Buddha-ruupa on the rocks facing the River Mekong... using the local rock... and organized it all himself for about one thousand //baht.// It was more than five metres high... but wasn't particularly beautiful because the workers were just ordinary local artisans rather than expert craftsmen... several attempts at remodelling transformed that into what we have today... After it was finished we built a pavilion around it... | ||
+ | |||
+ | On the twenty-sixth of March, 1970, the monastery received a royal proclamation establishing its boundaries (// | ||
+ | |||
+ | The foundation stone-laying ceremony took place on the twelfth of April 1972, with Somdet Phra Maha Virawong (Pim Dhammdharo) of Wat Sri Mahaa Dhaatu in Bangkaen, Bangkok heading the monks and Air force Lt. General Choo Suddhichot' | ||
+ | |||
+ | They constructed this Uposatha Hall with tiered double roofs,< | ||
+ | |||
+ | In 1986 the baked clay tile roof was replaced and it was redecorated inside and out... which cost more than four hundred and fifty thousand //baht.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | **//35.2 Wat Hin Mark Peng's Mondop//** | ||
+ | |||
+ | In 1972 I thought that this spot on the bank of the River Mekong would be an ideal site for building a //mondop.// It would be an artistic landmark for the Mekong River basin and have a Buddha-ruupa and Buddha relics. I also thought to myself that it could be a place to keep my bones... and then other people would not have to trouble themselves about finding a place. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ... In 1977 things started to happen with plans being drawn and the Fine Arts Department inspecting and improving the artistic design... it has three stories and is thirty-six metres high, with each floor being thirteen metres square... and the total cost was finally about five million //baht.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | **//35.3 The Desarangsee Hall//** | ||
+ | |||
+ | ... The original //sala// at Wat Hin Mark Peng was all wooden with some woven split bamboo sides and a tin roof... this was replaced by the Sala Desapradit' | ||
+ | |||
+ | **//35.4 Mural Wall Painting// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ... Paintings were commissioned in September 1987... On the central wall they portray scenes from the Lord Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | **//35.5 The Bell Tower//** | ||
+ | |||
+ | ... A bell that cost sixty thousand //baht// was cast and hung in a tower which cost three hundred and fifty thousand // | ||
+ | |||
+ | **//35.6 Wat Hin Mark Peng's Library//** | ||
+ | |||
+ | ... | ||
+ | |||
+ | **//35.7 The Drum Tower//** | ||
+ | |||
+ | ... | ||
+ | |||
+ | **//35.8 Dwelling Places for the Monks//** | ||
+ | |||
+ | ... Huts have been repaired and completely rebuilt... large or small according to the circumstances... usually in the Thai Style... until there are now fifty-six huts or //kutis// for the monks and novices... with thirty-seven in the nuns' quarters. The nuns' //sala,// the kitchens, toilets, washing facilities, a largish waterworks and electricity generators... these are valued at not less than ten million // | ||
+ | |||
+ | **//35.9 The Monastery Perimeter Wall//** | ||
+ | |||
+ | ... Since 1965, the monastery became ever more solidly established... with its area also expanding through donations. In 1985 the local District Officer helped arrange official acknowledgement of this with land deeds from the Department of Land for two hundred and sixty-one //rai//... It was the first place in that region to have legal claim to the land. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ... seeing the expansion of the local villages and the already established nature of the monastery... I thought it would be good to mark the boundaries clearly with a perimeter wall... the provincial Accelerated Rural Development prepared the site and it was built in 1986 at a cost of more than one and a half million //baht.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Celebrating HM The King's Fifth Cycle Anniversary ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | After finishing all these building projects... according to plan... I thought it would be appropriate that everyone who had helped could come together and see the results... and also take the opportunity to celebrate HM the King's Fifth Cycle Anniversary.< | ||
+ | |||
+ | I was able not only to establish Wat Hin Mark Peng on a solid foundation but the remaining resources were shared out... among other deserving monasteries, | ||
+ | |||
+ | 1. Wat Araññavaasee received an Uposatha Hall, a Dhamma Study Hall, two kutis, a perimeter wall and a concrete road. This cost more than nine million //baht.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | 2. Wat Phra Buddhabaht-korkaeng (Wen Koom)... Srii Chiang Mai District received buildings costing more than three and a half million //baht.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | 3. Wat Pah Kut Ngiew... Bahn Peur District... more than two million //baht.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | 4. Wat Phra Buddhabaht-Bua-bok... Bahn Peur District... more than three and a half million //baht.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | 5. Wat Pah Desarangsee (Wang Nam Mork)... Srii Chiang Mai District... two and a half million //baht.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | 6. Wat Bodhisomphorn... in Udorn-thani where one million //baht// was donated. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 7. The Phra Buddhabaht-Desarangsee-Vitayah School... of Srii Chiang Mai District and the Glahng Yai Nirodharangsee School... in Bahn Peur District received school buildings worth four million seven hundred thousand //baht.// The Ministry of Education acknowledged this aid to their school' | ||
+ | |||
+ | 8. The Nirodharangsee-kampeepaññajahn Trust which is a scholarship fund for poor but well behaved, hard working and clever students in the province of Nongkhai. At present, it contains almost one million two-hundred thousand //baht.// There is also Nongkhai' | ||
+ | |||
+ | 9. The Thate Desarangsee Fund for caring for the monks and novices and the maintenance of the buildings of Wat Hin Mark Peng, which stands at five million seven hundred thousand //baht.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | Besides this, there are the following projects still being implemented: | ||
+ | |||
+ | 1. A hospital ward for monks and novices at Khon Kaen University Medical School that has four million two hundred thousand //baht// allocated to it at present. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 2. A hospital ward in the district hospital of Pa Tew in Chumporn Province that my devotees have named the Luang Poo Thate Desarangsee Eighty-eighth Year Memorial Building and to which they have contributed three million //baht.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | 3. An Uposatha Hall at Wat Pah Nah Seedah... | ||
+ | |||
+ | 4. A crematorium for Wat Hin Mark... | ||
+ | |||
+ | 5. A water treatment plant for Wat Hin Mark... | ||
+ | |||
+ | 6. A Shrine Hall and guest kuti at Wat Hin Mark... | ||
+ | |||
+ | Plans to build a Chedi-Museum are now nearing completion. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Glossary ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | The words defined in this concise Glossary< | ||
+ | |||
+ | For Thai measurements, | ||
+ | |||
+ | <dl class=' | ||
+ | ? Aacariya-vat' | ||
+ | :: (Thai-Pali): | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Ajahn | ||
+ | :: (Thai): Teacher. A respectful title used for senior monks and one's meditation teacher. (Also more generally for university teachers, etc.) See **//Thai Titles//**. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Anattaa: | ||
+ | :: ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Aniccaa: | ||
+ | :: Impermanent, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Añjali: | ||
+ | :: Raising the hands, palms together, as a gesture of respect. **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Arahant: | ||
+ | :: Worthy one; one who has attained Nibbana. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Asubha: | ||
+ | :: Meditation on the unbeautiful, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Bhavanga: | ||
+ | :: In Thai used to describe a trance-like meditative state; the mind's underlying resting place. Also see reference in separate glossary to //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Bhikkhu: | ||
+ | :: A Buddhist monk; an alms mendicant. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Brahmacariya: | ||
+ | :: The Holy life; religious life; strict chastity. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Buddha: | ||
+ | :: The Awakened One; Enlightened One; usually referring to Siddhattha Gotama after his Enlightenment. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Chedi | ||
+ | :: (Thai); **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Chee-pah kao: | ||
+ | :: One who wears white robes (rather than the yellow robes of monk or novice) and who lives the homeless life under the Eight Precepts. Also see **//Maer Chee// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Citta | ||
+ | :: (Pali); **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Dhamma: | ||
+ | :: The Teachings (of the Buddha); the Truth; the Supramundane; | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? dhamma: | ||
+ | :: Thing; phenomenon; nature; condition. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Dhammayut' | ||
+ | :: One of the two Theravada ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Dhaatu: | ||
+ | :: An element; natural condition; earth, water, fire and wind or air. **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Dhutanga: | ||
+ | :: See **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Dukkha: | ||
+ | :: Suffering. See Noble Truths. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Ittarom | ||
+ | :: (??? Thai); **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Jhaana | ||
+ | :: //:// Meditative absorption in a single object. Full concentration. Also see **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Kamma | ||
+ | :: (Pali); **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Kamma.t.thaana: | ||
+ | :: (1) ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Kamma.t.thaana: | ||
+ | :: (2) This is also used as a general term describing the way of practice of meditation monks originating in the forests of N.E. Thailand. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Ka.thina: | ||
+ | :: The annual robes-giving ceremony, offered sometime during the month following the Rains Retreat. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Khandha: | ||
+ | :: Aggregate; category. Refers to each of the five components of human psycho-physical existence: body, feeling, perception, mental-formation, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Kilesa: | ||
+ | :: Defilements; | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Krot | ||
+ | :: (Thai): A large umbrella, usually hand-made from bamboo and cloth, used as a forest shelter by hanging a mosquito net from it. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Kuti | ||
+ | :: (Thai-Pali): | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Maer Chee | ||
+ | :: (Thai): A nun in white robes who keeps either Eight or Ten Precepts. Also see: **//Chee- pah kao//**. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Mahamakut Monastic College: | ||
+ | :: A monk's university based at Wat Bovoranives in Bangkok, which is the central organizing authority for many official Dhamma courses and their examination. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Mahaa-nikaaya: | ||
+ | :: The older and numerically larger of the two ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Mondop: | ||
+ | :: A large, usually square-sectioned monument or building. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Naama (-dhamma): | ||
+ | :: Mind; name; mental factors; mentality. Also **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Ñaa.na: | ||
+ | :: Knowledge; wisdom; insight. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Nekkhamma: | ||
+ | :: Renunciation; | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Nibbaana | ||
+ | :: (Pali); Nirvana (Sanskrit): The extinction of the fires of greed, hatred and ignorance; the extinction of all defilements and suffering; Liberation; the Unconditioned. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Nikaya: | ||
+ | :: A grouping or ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Nimit' | ||
+ | :: (Thai); **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Nirodha-samaapatti: | ||
+ | :: Highest state of concentration possible, where there is a temporary suspension of all consciousness and mental activity. (See the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Noble Truths | ||
+ | :: //(The Four)//: The briefest synthesis of the entire teachings of Buddhism: The Truth of: (1) Suffering (// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Ordination | ||
+ | :: ; **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Pali: | ||
+ | :: The language of the ancient texts of the Theravaada Canon. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Paaraajika: | ||
+ | :: The four most serious offenses against the Monk's Discipline (the **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Paaramii | ||
+ | :: (**// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Paa.timokkha: | ||
+ | :: The fundamental 227 rules observed by monks (// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Pavaara.na: | ||
+ | :: The annual formal assembly for bhikkhus that marks the end of the Rains Retreat; when each monk offers the others the opportunity to admonish him for any transgressions he may have committed. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Rains Retreat | ||
+ | :: ; **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Ruupa(-dhamma): | ||
+ | :: Matter; form; material; body; corporeality. See **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Sala | ||
+ | :: (Thai): The usually quite large, open-sided hall used for general meetings or more specific functions. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Samaadhi: | ||
+ | :: Concentration; | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Sama.na: | ||
+ | :: Recluse; holy one; a Buddhist monk; one following the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Sa" | ||
+ | :: (lit: congregation) (1) Those Noble Ones forming the third of the Three Jewels; (2) the Order of monks. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Sa.nkhaara: | ||
+ | :: Compounded things, conditioned things, formative factors, determinations. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Sappaaya: | ||
+ | :: Favorable conditions (for meditation, etc.): suitable abode; suitable location; suitable speech; suitable person (as spiritual companion and teacher); suitable food; suitable climate; suitable posture. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Sati: | ||
+ | :: Mindfulness; | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Siila: | ||
+ | :: Virtue; morality; moral conduct; a precept; training rule. See //Appendix A.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Siima: | ||
+ | :: The formally agreed and designated assembly place required for any formal meeting of the Community of monks. In Thailand they mark this area by boundary stones which usually encircle the **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Thai: | ||
+ | :: The author' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Thai Measurements: | ||
+ | :: **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Thai Place Names: | ||
+ | :: villages are often named after a local feature of the landscape so: **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Thai Titles: | ||
+ | :: In Thailand, not using an honorific before the person' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Ajahn | ||
+ | :: (Thai); **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Somdet | ||
+ | :: //; **Chao Khun**; **Phra Khru**:// Officially awarded ecclesiastical titles. As one moves up the hierarchy, so one's title changes and another monk may then receive that same title. This can be confusing, therefore their Thai name is often appended in brackets to differentiate between holders of the same title. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Ti-lakkha.na | ||
+ | :: //:// The 'three characteristics of existence' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Tudong | ||
+ | :: (Thai); **// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Uposatha: | ||
+ | :: Observance Day. Also see **//Wan Phra//**. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Uposatha | ||
+ | :: (Pali); **//Bot//** (Thai): In established monasteries there is usually a special Shrine Hall, often with the main Buddha-statue, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Vinaya: | ||
+ | :: Monastic Discipline or Rule, which includes the core 227 // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Wan Phra: | ||
+ | :: (Thai): The Observance Day (Quarter-moon Day) or ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? Wat | ||
+ | :: (Thai): A monastery or ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====== The Meaning of Anattaa ====== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <div rightalign>< | ||
+ | <span anchor # | ||
+ | |||
+ | Anything fashioned by conditions, whether physical or mental, is called a // | ||
+ | |||
+ | When meditators practice correctly and have the discernment to see that quality (of deathlessness) as it really is, the result is that they can withdraw their attachments from all things — including their attachment to the discernment that enters in to see the quality as it really is. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The practice of all things good and noble is to reach this very point. | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div rightalign>// | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Notes ===== | ||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | <div notes> | ||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: 7 # 5 4 [In the traditional Thai calendar: 7 = the seventh day (Saturday); 5 = the fifth lunar month; 4 = the fourth day of the waning moon — JTB] | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: He finally received the ecclesiastical title of //Phra Raja-nirodharangsee// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The Buddhist texts were traditionally inscribed in these characters which are of Indo-Cambodian root. See Appendix B. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: As opposed to the local //Esan// or Northeast regional dialect. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: A forest fruit abundant in the North-east of Thailand that could be eaten when there was no rice. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: See Appendix A. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: See Glossary. Thai Measurements. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: There are no obligatory life vows for Buddhist monks. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The nursery-rice fields are sown by ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: I.e., the basic diet. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Rice planted on upland fields, which is a different strain from that planted in the flooded paddy fields. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The skilled splitting of bamboo and whittling the strips to raffia thinness. Reaping would usually start at dawn, when the dampness keeps the bamboo strips pliable enough to be pulled tightly around the rice sheaf. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The typical cart would have been two-wheeled, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Dukkha Sacca.// The term //dukkha// (suffering) is not limited to painful experience but refers to the ultimate unsatisfactory nature and the general insecurity of all conditioned phenomena which, on account of their impermanence, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Folk belief spoke of charms, herbs, and magical tattoos that would ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Occult and magical things. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Ordering others to kill any living creature is a breach of the monastic discipline and of basic Buddhist morality. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Thailand even sent troops, late in 1918, to help the Allies. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Venerable Ajahn Mun (1870-1949), | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Wandering for seclusion through the forest. See Glossary. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Concentration. See Glossary. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Walking along the paddy dyke paths. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Huts used by the villagers when out working in their fields, usually just a very simple thatch and bamboo structure raised on posts. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Wat is a monastery or ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Lit: the 'going forth', | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Nak Dhamm' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: See Glossary. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: 2467 BE. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Siima.// See Glossary. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The month of offering and sewing of robes immediately following the Rains Retreat. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Pali is examined in nine grades. On passing grade three one is given the title //Mahaa// before one's name. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: In those days //tudong// was uncommon, and some saw it akin to undisciplined vagrancy. A monk's parents might be shocked and ashamed to discover that their son had left on //tudong.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Young boys would lodge with a monk, helping him with chores while receiving support and education. This enabled poor boys from villages without schools to come and live in the towns and it formed a route for them to go on to higher education. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Lit: the twelfth [lunar] month. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Probably meaning the making and repair of robes, //krot,// bowl-stand, etc. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Daily Chanting and Recollection of the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The jungle at night is //very// dark and even darker during a storm. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Kuti//: (Normally) a very simple hut or dwelling for a monk or nun. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: See Appendix C. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Venerable Ajahn Sao Kantasiilo (1860-1942) (pronounced ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Aegle marmelos//: a medicinal, hard shelled fruit, about the size of an orange. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: A title of respect for an elderly lady. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: On transferring to the other //Nikaya,// (Group or ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: I.e., he claimed enlightenment. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Conditions can be exacerbated by the local jungle' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: He had actually stopped breathing for quite a period, before recovering. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: An area of jungle outside the town, set aside for the cremating of dead bodies. Somewhere feared by the residents but favored as a place of solitude by //tudong// monks. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Dhaatu// (Pali) — //Taht// (Thai): See Glossary. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Pee// (Thai) means a ghost or spirit, of which there are many varieties. The //pee-um// manifests as a suffocating feeling or a kind of nightmare, as if a ghost is sitting astride one's chest. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Country folk inevitably hunted in the jungles and fished in the floods. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Before entering, the determination is made to withdraw after a certain length of time. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Jhaana//: full concentration on a single object. See Glossary. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Lit: ghost or demon realms; i.e., those of blame and doubt. The previous paragraphs and hypothetical questions are phrased this way to forestall any criticism that the author, by even bringing up such profound subjects, might be seen as hinting about his own attainments. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: This lacuna appears in the original, probably meaning that it is better to go no further into the matter. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Chee-pah kao//: A layman who lives the homeless life under Eight Precepts, wearing white robes rather than the saffron robes of a monk or novice. See Appendix A. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: A folk belief that any sudden or extraordinary abundance was an omen of approaching death. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Lit: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Luang Dtah: See //Thai Titles// in Glossary. //Mun// is a given name and this is not the same person as the famous meditation master. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //[sic]// //Master// or //Mister,// not // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: In those days, monks who were able to live unharmed in remote, ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The traditional Pali phrases start with: //" | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Monks who have committed a // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: There are no life vows for Buddhist monks. Badly practicing monks, especially those who have broken the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: To Thai ears, the cock normally crows: //" | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Described following a famous Thai literary mountain-maze. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Dtai// (Thai): the old style torch made from crumbly, rotten wood particles, compressed in an inflammable resin and bound in leaves in a long cylinder. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: According to the monk's discipline, water has to be filtered of all living creatures before use. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Wan Phra:// The Buddhist ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: This would break the monk's and nun's Precepts. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Often employed in exorcising ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: In the days before motorized rice mills, each house would have a stamp mill. The ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: An ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: I.e., reversing or inverting the normal act of respect. Feet are considered unmentionably low and contemptible in polite Thai society. The author adds his apologies in parentheses for even mentioning the matter! | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: A power object, an amulet or charm. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Wat Pah Salawan. The rail line had not then been extended to Udorn-thani and Nongkhai. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: A constitutional monarchal style of democracy. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Lit: great convergence. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Asubha.// See Glossary. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Nakorn Wiang-jan (Thai-Lao): then the French colonial capital of Laos. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The ancient northern Lao capital, Nakorn Luang = Capital City. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The River Mekong is a great river, but the volume of water rapidly declines after the Monsoon so that massive ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: A famous statue of the Buddha, after which the city is named. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The river usually forms the border between Laos and Thailand except for this stretch, where both banks belong to Laos. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The traditional medicines from the Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Buses or trains were rarely available. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Probably the scholastic monks. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: As the author explains at the end of this section, this is aimed mainly at monks (and celibates) and should be understood in that context. The special Thai vocabulary for monks is sometimes used and this makes close translation difficult. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Celibate life. See Glossary. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Unfortunately, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: According to the monastic discipline, a monk or nun cannot be alone with the opposite sex and always needs a chaperon. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: There is a tradition in Thailand that every young man should ordain for a certain period — here are no life vows for a mon — which shows his ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Cousin of the Buddha and personal attendant, renowned for his memory of the Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Fully-ordained Buddhist nun. This eminent disciple of the Buddha, Ayya Upalava.n.na, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: I.e., by not indulging in sensual pleasures but turning to examine their effect on the mind, one can transcend them. Thus there is neither indulgence, nor repression but the middle path of restraint and insight. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Lit: of the //samana// (recluse, lit: 'the peaceful one' ) gender. (In Thai there are three genders: male, female and // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: A Thai pun: to mould or fashion = //pan//; fist = kam-// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: According to the monastic Rule, monks are strictly prohibited from accepting money, gold and silver. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Craving for and indulgence in pleasurable experience arising from the five senses. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The Shan States and Burma are mainly Buddhist; many of the hill tribes are Buddhist(-animist). | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: This area of Burma was home to many ethnic groups: Shan, Mon, Karen etc., and it was still under British colonial rule. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Lit: the Japanese War. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The familiar name of Piboon Songkram, who headed the Thai government at that time. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: One of the highest in Thailand, over 2,000 metres. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Muntiacus muntjak// are quite small in size, have a barking cry when alarmed, and are normally very shy. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Ang-sa//: (Thai) the long, narrow rectangular piece of yellow cloth, worn across the left shoulder beneath the monk's robe. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: An ordinary candle protected from the wind by a cylinder of cloth. Normally used by forest monks. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Monks on //tudong// would carry a bag with bowl and spare robes over one shoulder while the other shoulder was balanced with a small bag and //krot.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Acacia insuavis (Leguminosae).// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Mi-ang// is the fermented tea leaf, so this would be an area of tea bush plantation, quite high up in the mountains. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Lit: 300 //sen.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The different hilltribe groups have their own distinct languages, mostly quite different from Thai. In those days with no schools, most people would not be able to speak Thai. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: See Glossary. ('Body and mind-concomitants' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Lit: "would have made for a lot of fun." A euphemistic way of saying that he might have become unbalanced. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: A monk depends on the generosity and goodwill of the lay people for his alms food. If there are many villagers, however poor, each will only be required to contribute a small portion. If there are too few families, unless specifically invited, a monk may feel reluctant to stay there so as not to impose on them. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: For Thais, rice is the staple at every meal. In Thai, 'to eat' literally is 'to eat rice'. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Wild yams, taros and other potato-type tubers were widely found and eaten throughout Northern Thailand. In the North-east of Thailand, they were considered more a famine food, glutinous rice being very much the staple. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Colocasia antiquorum Aroideae,// the coco-yam or taro. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Pai// is a playing or gambling card; //too-ah// and //be-er// are gambling games using cowrie shells. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Lit: 'to lay down forest cloth.' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Lit: ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Pee dtong leeung: where //pee// is spirit or ghost; //dtong// is a large (banana) leaf; //leeung// is yellow. This tribe is also called the Marabi, an ethnic group of North Thailand. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: In the Shan States of Burma. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Generally, Thais are very modest about such things. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Unlike other parts of Thailand where snakes are sometimes eaten, and meat and fish may be only half-cooked or raw | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Of the //sack-// or // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Slaves were commonplace up until the late nineteenth century. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Phra Sammaa Sambuddha Chao// who has fulfilled all the Perfections (// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: A laywoman devotee. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Jhaana//: there are eight levels of absorption concentration depending on the refinement of the meditation. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The leader and personification of evil forces. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //khun// (Thai). There are plays on words here difficult to convey in English. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: A hollow section of large bamboo gives a deep resonant sound, often used in the villages for signalling, almost like a drum. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Austere practices. See //Tudong// in Glossary. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: A cousin of the Lord Buddha, who originally had mundane psychic powers but through jealousy and ambition eventually tried to kill the Buddha and subsequently lost them. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: An ancient, devoutly Buddhist people, once powerful in present day Burma and Thailand, now an ethnic minority group in both countries. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Now the main // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: In Thailand, this is traditionally considered a very inauspicious dream. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: An annual ceremony where the villagers present offerings to the monks to make merit for the dead, while the distribution of the gifts is done by drawing lots. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Not to be confused with the more famous Ajahn Mahaa Pin Paññaabalo mentioned earlier. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The Northeast region is generally regarded as the poorest part of Thailand. It is also the driest and most infertile so that many people had to go off and work as laborers in the other regions of Thailand when there was no work in the fields. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: See Appendix C for background to this tension. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: This whole area was rich in tin deposits. //Dta-gooa Toong// means //Field of Tin// while //Tai Muang// means //Behind the Mine.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: A monk's ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Historically, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Aesop' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //nipa fruiticans.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: About two acres. See Glossary: //Thai measurements.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Upajjhaaya: is a senior monk who is certified to conduct ordinations, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: I.e., some donors wanted it to be used specifically for Ven. Ajahn Thate' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Lit: //" | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Thai idiom, meaning ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: 'Phra Raja-tahn Samanasak Phra Raja-kana-sahman Fai Vipassanaa. Addressed as 'Chao Khun'. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Where // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: It is in the Poo Pahn range, with heights of over 300 metres. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Wild boar were common in jungle monasteries until quite recent times. They have a reputation for dauntlessness, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Hin Mark Peng is the name for some huge rocks on the bank of the River Mekong. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: This refers to the traditional design, being raised off the ground on posts, with a high peaked, steeply angled roof (for better rain run-off during the monsoon season). ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: This exemplifies the author' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Collecting water from the roof, mainly for drinking during the long, hot dry season. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: A long, low boat with an extended propeller shaft. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: I.e., the full specified three months were not completed. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Thinking that he might have seen the future winning numbers in his meditation. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Thailand has always been open to missionaries. The Thai king is Buddhist but protects all religions. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Buddhism declined from being a major religion in India for many reasons: The Muslim invasions from the North-west, the Hindu resurgence and a probable decline in Dhamma practice. The famous Buddhist ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Place of the Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Bangkok is the western name, in Thai it is 'Krung Thep' or City of Angels. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: People who have realized the first of the four stages of enlightenment. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: I.e., rather than the underlying problems being //class// and // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Compare with Bangkok! | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Lit: like playing the flute to a water buffalo. Like ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: In accordance with Thai good manners. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The ellipses in this paragraph are in the original. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Meditative absorption on an object. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Quoting some teachings of the Buddha. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Meditative absorption on a non-material object | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: When Prince Siddhattha Gotama went forth from his palace into the homeless life, these were his first teachers whom he then surpassed. See the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The former capital of Siam between 1569-1767, when it was destroyed by invading Burmese forces. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: //Durio zibethinus (Malvaceae).// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: This includes generosity, morality, right livelihood and meditation. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Becoming monks for a short period. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Lit: children and grandchildren. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: For more details see Appendix D. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: See Glossary. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: See //Section 28.1.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Volitional action. See Glossary. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: The //preta// or realm of hungry ghosts; //avicii// is one of the most painful hells. But note that no realm is eternal for all are conditioned by one's deeds or //kamma.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: See the following section for the venerable author' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Based on "A Disciple' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: See Section 29 above. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: In Thailand, the bodies of important people will be preserved for a certain time to allow suitable arrangements to be prepared and for people to come and pay their last respects. Two of Venerable Ajahn Thate' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Recommended by the Buddha himself. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: This had been added by the translator for those unfamiliar with the Buddhist Precepts. They are mentioned throughout the text. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Included as an addition at the back of the original Thai edition of the Autobiography. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Thai Law has special regulations about such things. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: In the traditional Thai architectural style. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: In Thailand, one's birth-year accords with the name of an animal and a number. There are twelve animals in the cycle and ten numbers, which means both cycles come full circle at age 60. It is considered an especially significant birthday. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Another Glossary specifically for //Steps along the Path// follows that work. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Translated from the Thai by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div showmore> | ||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div f_zzecopy> | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | Nongkhai Province", | ||
+ | [[http:// | ||
+ | " | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # |