Khanti - Wat Pah Nanachat

change? What’s the difference, what are the causes, what are
the conditions? How does it feel, going to the meditation hall
every morning? What is your attitude to morning chanting? Do
you like it? Do you dislike it? Do you feel indifferent? Do you
like it when some people lead the chanting? Do you not like it
when other people lead the chanting? Do you like this chant?
Do you like that chant? How do you feel about going on alms
round? How do you feel about this route rather than that route?
All these kinds of likes and dislikes are coming up and
becoming very clear to you because you have a stable
background of korwat. You’re not just doing things the way
you want to do them.
When you first have an opportunity to live alone, you
think, ‘Ah, this is what I want.’ You can sit as long as you
want, you can walk as long as you want. There are so many
things you can do in the way you’ve always wanted to do them,
and that feels good – no question about that. But that feeling of
relaxation and enjoyment that you can do the things the way
you want to do them, is not necessarily a wholesome thing in
the long run. There’s also a lot to be said for forfeiting that
kind of control Of course you have the control in the sense that
you’ve volunteered to come here. Nobody forced you to enter
this monastery, to take on the training. You committed yourself
to it, you took dependence from the Ajahn, and that means it is
like a contract. ‘Okay, I signed up for this now. And I’m
willing to give up a certain amount of my freedom out of
confidence and faith that this is a training that will have a
beneficial effect upon me.’ And then, when we’re in that safe
environment, in which everyone’s conduct is grounded in
Vinaya, and where we all have that sense of spiritual
friendship, and we’re all following the same path towards the
same goal, where we can feel that confidence that people are
living within the boundaries of the Vinaya and no one is going
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