:: Buddhapadipa Thai Temple

Journey to Thailand

To a worldling who truly sees the danger in the endless vatta (round of samsara) and who is earnestly seeking the way to get …perhaps I am clinging to the idea of being free from attachment and actually I still have far to go onto the Ariyamagga and to progress along it, an opportunity of making great merit and, perhaps, receiving comprehensive instruction for this practice is surely irresistible. What great merit-making opportunity? Well, how about paying homage directly, face to face, to a live Arahant in his physical form and to give dana to him? Just think, giving dana to a supreme field of merit! (Yes, the level of richness of fruit resulting from a meritorious deed depends, on one hand, on the virtue and moral purity of the recipient!) …the Buddha said,”…what I actually teach, Vaccha, is this: even if one throws away the rinsings from a pot or cup into a village pool or pond, wishing that the living beings there may feed on them - even this would be a source of merit, not to speak of giving a gift to human beings. However, I do declare that offerings made to the virtuous bring rich fruit, and not so much those made to the immoral. The virtuous one has abandoned five qualities and possesses another five qualities. What are the five qualities he has abandoned? Sensual desire, will will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and doubt; these are the five qualities he abandoned. And what are the five qualities he possesses? He possesses the virtue, concentration, wisdom, liberation and knowledge - a vision of liberation of one perfect in training. These are the five qualities he possesses. What is given to one who has abandoned those five qualities and who possesses these five qualities - this, I declare, brings rich fruit.” - Anguttara Nikaya III 57.

Well, that was exactly what happened in March 2004. That opportunity led three of us, my wife, our daughter and myself, taking a trip to Thailand, an entirely foreign country to us. We knew no one there, and we don’t speak the language, not even know “sawadee ka/krup”. Our intended destination was not Bangkok, neither. Wat Pa Baan Taad at Udon Thani, in the North-East corner of Thailand was where we wanted to go. Being totally ignorant about Thailand, we searched the internet for information, and some stories we found were not exactly encouraging, you could understand our little anxiety over the planned trip.

The whole event began with my wife’s random surf over the internet on Dhamma in December 2003. It led us to “Straight from the Heart” complied from talks given by the Venerable Acariya Maha Boowa Nanasampanno. Then followed by “Venerable Acariya Mun Bhuridatta Thera, A Spiritual Biography”. Wow! It was really a “Wow”. It still is whenever I reflect on these talks. It overwhelmed both of us. It gave us such aspiration and inspiration! With such vivid accounts by someone with direct experience from the Dhamma practice, the Dhutanga practice, how can one not be impressed deeply and deeply touched? Both of us came to the conclusion that Venerable Maha Boowa must be an Arahant! After intuitively knowing that he was an arahant, (anyway the translator of that edition of the Biography, Mr. Siri Buddhasukh, said in the introduction to his translation, “I strongly believe that the writer is already an arahant.” We did not know then that Venerable Maha Boowa already made it known that he was one, probably just a couple of years before we came across his teaching. We learned of this only sometimes after we returned to England from our visit to Wat Pa Baan Taad, again from the internet indirectly), I suggested we make a trip to pay our humble homage to him later on that year. Bearing anicca in mind, particularly he was then 90 years old, my wife considered that we may as well go straight away. That was February. So we immediately got things in motion. Through a friend’s friend, someone with a car and limited English would meet us at Udon Thani Airport and would act as our guide. She would take us to a hotel and then to the Wat. We had the news that Venerable Maha Boowa was staying in the Wat, but would leave for Bangkok by the beginning of April. So we booked our flights and off we went to Thailand in the second week of March.

Everything went smoothly. Thanks to our guide, we found ourselves in a nice hotel. The next day, we were taken to visit Wat Pa Baan Taad. Upon leaving the Wat, we spotted Venerable Maha Boowa taking a walk in leisure! I asked our guide to stop and let us out so that we could prostrate to him. What an excitement! But, alas, it must be due to our kamma and not otherwise, our guide did not stop the car, we were told instead that, according to the information she got, the Venerable was not meeting anyone. We ended up to be content by just putting our palms together to salute him. What a disappointment! We found out later that her information was totally unfounded! How could that be possible? Being an arahant, he is naturally compassionate to all beings. He is addressed as Luangta affectionately in Thailand! What could you do when one’s kammic profile is such that one is not yet due to receive such a good fortune! We should only be satisfied with the mere sight of and a salutation from a distance to an arahant! We actually counted that it was our blessing that at our very first untimely visit to the Wat we saw the Venerable walking alone unaccompanied by any human being. It was a complete surprise to us.

Thailand is such a wonderful friendly country and with such genuine kindness! Even though with very limited common languages, English and Chinese, the people came to offer help! (Actually there are quite a number of Thai people speaking a certain Chinese dialect, but I, being Chinese myself, is a stranger to that dialect.) Since it was rather extravagant and far beyond our capacity to stay in a hotel and at the same time paying for a personal local guide, we had to give our guide the dismissal. We had to get on by ourselves despite the language barrier. We soon learned where and how to take a “bus” from the hotel and then a tuktuk to the monastery. We got lifts as well. With the help of our new friends met in the monastery, we learned the art of giving alms food, and later found a lay devotee there who would prepare alms food and took them to the monastery for us. And they helped to move us to a small hut in the monastery, saving us the journey between the hotel and the Wat veryday. Not only that they helped us move into the hut, they also made sure that we had plenty to eat in the afternoon, for there was only one meal in the temple in the morning. So everyday, in addition to their coming to the Wat to give alms food, these friendly people also brought us snacks for the afternoon. The trouble was that there was no storage facility for food keeping even for a few hours, the hut being simply a small room of approximately 3.5 m x 2.5 m on a wooden platform. And the ants were very clever and quick! Even though we hung the bag of food up under the beam. Soon we could spot the whole army marching towards the shopping bag! Instead of continuing the battle with ants, we tried to eat all the food up early in the afternoon so as not to waste our friends’ good will. But an over-full stomach did not make sitting meditation easy! Luckily we had our secluded path for walking meditation, and it was shaded in a larger section of it, and we could also use the balcony, which ran round our room for walking meditation too. Boy, it was hot in March and April! Taking a cold water shower was a pleasant treat. Pouring bucket after bucket, small bucket of course, of water over the head was something I did not dream of doing at home. It was really nice. Not only that we were well fed, we got taken to visit famous forest monasteries as well. We were taken to visit Wat Tham Klong Phen in Nong Bua Lamphu district of Udon Thani province. Acariya Khao Analyo once resided there. Acariya Khao frequently encountered wild animals in his practice; he was known to have special affinity to elephants. In his later years, when he settled down in Wat Tham Klong Phen, a wild elephant went there to visit him. We were shown to Luang Por Janrian’s Wat Tumsahai in A.Nong Guasaw. The large natural cave formed by large rock inspired serenity. We went to Udon Thani as complete strangers. But by the time we left we have several families there as friends!

Thailand is a land of blessing. There are plenty opportunities to make merit. One can give alms food every morning. No wonder we met so many people who looked happy and content, though not many of them looked materially rich. There was once, on early days there, we moved closer to the group of people getting round Luangta after meal in the sala, suddenly a large enamel coated tray with two small lumps of food on it was pushed to us. I thought it must be a tray needed to be washed. So I picked it up with the intention of taking it away. My action horrified those sat next to me. One of them quickly took the tray from me and shared the food left on it among them with such contentment! Then I learned that it was from Luangta! See, a person like me who does not have much merit would miss a real fortune even if it was delivered right
into his hand! Of course the next time round, we were not that stupid. Wat Pa Baan Taad is about 15 km from the town of Udon Thani. It comprises of a forest of about 100 acres surrounded by rice fields. It began in November 1955 from a donation. In the early days, in the monastery’s history, there were three tigers and about three leopards that came and went. In those days, there was only wilderness that surrounded the monastery, no rice field. But the wilderness has long gone, replaced by rice field. In the
beginning, the boundary of the monastery was not fenced. But in order to protect the many forest creatures who sought refuge in the shade and tranquillity of the monastery,
and in order to prevent outsiders from entering the area and disturbing the meditation practice of the monks and novices, a concrete wall was built to enclose the area. This wall is thus like a strong fortress enclosure that offers quietude and protection to the forest creatures as well as the necessary serenity needed by the monks, novices and lay people who are endeavouring to free themselves from mental defilements and attain the full release of Nibbana. Actually in our very first visit of the monastery, we
arrived between half past twelve and one o’clock in the afternoon, the monastery was so quiet that it seemed to be deserted, very tranquil.

Passing through the gate into the compound is a road leading towards an inner wall. There is a wide stretch of land on both side of the road. On the left, there stands a very large sala, along the right side of the road is a row of benches for alms giving in the morning. The inner gate leads toward a smaller sala, about 27 metres by 20 metres, standing on concrete posts. The ground floor is cement-paved and is used as eating hall. The upper level is of hard wood floor which is well polished, very
clean. At the far end stand three golden rupas, one larger than the next, of Buddha image, with the smallest in front. These are the only extravagant objects in the
monastery. In front as well as behind the Buddha image are pictures of senior Acariyas: Venerable Acariya Sao Kantasile, Venerable Acariya Mun Bhuridatto and
others. In the display case stand urns containing relics of Venerable Acariya Sao Kantasile, Venerable Acariya Mun Bhuridatto and Venerable Acariya Sing
Khalayakhamo of Wat Pa Salawan. From the sala are many paths running off towards isolated kutis throughout the forest. They stand fairly far apart and are separated

“He possesses the virtue, concentration, wisdom, liberation and knowledge - a vision
of liberation of one perfect in training. These are the five qualities he possesses.
What is given to one who has abandoned those five qualities and who possesses these
five qualities - this, I declare, brings rich fruit”

from each other by strips of forest dense enough so that the inhabitants can’t see one another. In case the separating trees are patchy, not dense enough, mats are
used to preserve privacy. Each kuti has its own levelled path for walking meditation. Area round the kutis and paths are all swept clean and kept tidy. The entire environment geared for the urgent task at hand, namely, the meditation practice.

Luangta usually gave a Dhamma talk or answered questions in the sala after the morning meal. Being ignorant to Thai, we could only try to listen with our Citta. In one of his Dhamma talk given during his London visit in 1974, Luangta said, "…..But now the Teacher speaks a different language and you who listen may not yet be able to understand while the teacher is explaining. But if your Citta stays just in front -- in other words the determination to listen at this time has been made -- this, together with the flow of Dhamma which is being explained, goes inward and touches one within the Citta. This will make the heart aware of the impact of the sound and it will at least become calm and cool. This is so because the sound is an emotionally based object (Arammana) which can cause the Citta to be a “present Citta.”

To be in such close proximity with an arahant was bliss itself. I certainly have not wasted my life as a human being. We also have the good fortune to meet Luang Por Pannavaddho, the late co-abbot of Wat Pa Baan Taad. It was generally agreed that he was the oldest western monk in Thailand before his passing away in
August 2004. He came to Thailand in 1961after spending five years looking after the vihara in London. It was our merit to be able to have met him, it would not have had
happened if we had left this trip until later on in the year! Luang Por Panna always made himself available. He would sit in the shade across the sala after the morning
meal as well as in the afternoon. Anyone could approach him with any question. Or simply sat near him in his calm and serene presence. Luang Por had been in Wat Pa
Baan Taad for over forty years. He was much loved and well respected by monks and lay people. The number of people attending his funeral was estimated
between 30,000 and 50,000, of which over 4,000 were monks. His funeral took place in the afternoon on a sunny day, yet a rainbow almost in full circle round the sun appeared three times in the sky during the event. A most auspicious sight!

We returned to England after almost four weeks in Thailand. Contented and full of fond memory and gratitude. We were deeply inspired and our confidence to tread
along the Buddha’s Path strengthened. Two families of friends saw us off at the airport urging us to return soon. And of course, no doubt we shall return soon!