Forest Path - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

ten thousand joys & ten thousand sorrows 97
time? Was it due to an inexperienced person setting up or perhaps
due to someone working with greed that day? Depending on my
mind state I was sensitive and sometimes I took things personally as
if there was someone who was directly trying to create dukkha for
me. There were many different ways the mind could proliferate in
response to a given situation.
I have also experienced monks who were sensitive to the position of
women in the monastery. I’ve noticed the gestures of kindness and
concern. There was a novice who made a separate kettle of cocoa for
women so that they wouldn’t have to wait so long and there were
other novices who would personally pass on the spare sitting cushions
to women. At other times monks would ask if there was enough
food or tea for the women or a monk would make a sincere apology
for his lack of mindfulness towards women. All this took effort, energy,
humility and awareness to the sensitivity of women living in
the monastery which was much appreciated. Honest mistakes and
miscalculations do happen.
It takes at least a few visits and sometimes more to understand Wat
Pa Nanachat. To get a deeper understanding of the monastic
training set-up, I needed to take the time and energy to keep asking
questions. At the same time I had to be open to receive answers.
I found it was important to dispel doubts by asking questions in order
to benefit from the new experiences gained from living in a Thai
monastery. My doubts or misunderstandings occurred because
there were many perceptions to a given situation. I experienced one
monk who did not use eye contact during a dhamma discussion
with the lay residents. My judgemental mind was saying, “he is a
young monk and he must lack confidence, be insecure and have
women issues to deal with in his practice”. It being odd or impolite
not to make eye contact when one speaks was part of my conditioning.
In a monastery a little or no eye contact was appropriate for a
‘good’ monk. It was obvious he was a ‘good’ monk because his
dhamma responses were sharp and clear, with compassion and
wisdom.
Timing and not taking everything so seriously is also important. I
remember one occasion when someone asked me, “How come all
the monks are so young?” I said, “It’s all that meditation they do”.