Forest Path - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

twain shall meet 21
horrendous vassa at Tam Saang Pet I ran away, spent the rains
in a monastery in the South-East and then went to India.
“But while I was there I had a really powerful heart-opening
experience. I kept thinking of Luang Por and how I’d run
away, and I felt a great feeling of gratitude to him, and I decided
that I would go back and serve. It was very idealistic. ‘I’ll
just give myself to Luang Por. Anything he wants me to do.’
We’d just opened this horrible branch monastery at Suan
Glooay down on the Cambodian border, and nobody wanted
to go and stay there. I’d gone down there for a Kathina ceremony
and been taller than all the trees. So in India I thought I’d
volunteer to go and take over Suan Glooay. I had this romantic
image of myself. But of course, when I got back Luang Por refused
to send me there and by the end of the year there were so
many Westerners at Wat Pa Phong that he asked me to come
back to translate for them. Basically I trusted him because he
was the one pushing me into things that I wouldn’t have done
by myself.”