Khanti - Wat Pah Nanachat

In fact I had heard this word “od ton, od ton” 22 before.
It’s about the first Thai word that I learnt. The young monk’s
dismissive summary said as much about his understanding and
general level of faith as anything else, but as a summary of a
three hour talk it wasn’t at all satisfying to me, as you can
imagine (it did, however, have one positive effect: it made me
particularly diligent in learning the Thai language).
Nevertheless, it was true and as I learnt the language it became
more and more obvious to me, that the vast majority of the
teachings were not the so-called “high Dhamma”, but were
firmly founded on the practise of the monastic observances.
Ajahn Chah talked a lot about living together in harmony,
being scrupulous with the Vinaya. When the profound
Dhamma did come, there was a great sense of joy and
enjoyment. You didn’t hear it so often that you took it for
granted. But those monks who felt that the real Dhamma is the
high Dhamma and that everything else is just padding and
filler, which is not really worth it because it was “just about
korwat” or just about patient endurance – they missed the boat.
They didn’t catch on to what the teaching was about.
Patient endurance – “khanti”, in Pali, “kwam od ton”
(or simply “od ton”) in Thai – is a singular kind of wholesome
dhamma in that it holds no obvious or immediate charm. It’s
not the kind of dhamma that inspires your heart to feel uplifted
and enthusiastic, the moment you hear its name. But yet as we
know from the Ovada Patimokkha 23 , the Buddha gave central
importance to this virtue. In the Ovada Patimokkha, khanti is
22 kwam od ton or simply od ton : Thai for patient endurance and
bearing with things, or to be able to stand them.
23 Ovada Patimokkha: A famous summary by the Buddha of his
essential teachings, that contains the quote: khanti paramam tapo
tithikkha (patient endurance is the highest practice burning up
defilements).
22