Khanti - Wat Pah Nanachat

front door, their sense of themselves had changed. Now they
were people with a concern for road safety. So, three weeks
later, when they were asked to put that big sign in their front
garden, they had this sense that they should be consistent with
this new idea of who they are. And so many people, sixty
percent said yes to these big ugly signs. Now, the comparison
with monastic life is this: to keep the Vinaya, to be restrained,
to follow the korwat – these are not merely external things that
have nothing to do with the real practice. They have a very
subtle effect on our sense of who we are. The samana-sañña,
things are contributing. In the famous simile of Suzuki Roshi, it
is not like going out in the rainstorm and getting wet; it is like
going out in the fog and you are gradually and gradually
getting more wet. This is one of the ideas underlying this
training.
I believe this training works and is effective, provided
that you’re able to look at it and clearly see its value, and give
yourself to it. Wat Pah Nanachat, as you know, is not an
isolated western or non-Thai enclave in the Thai monastic
world. We’re part of something much bigger; we’re one branch
of more than two hundred branches, we’re part of a lineage
with wonderful teachers. One of the greatest was here this
morning, the upajjhaya 33 of many of you sitting here today,
Luang Por Liem. And so, our understanding of what Wat Pah
Nanachat-monks are, is not of being part of an isolated entity,
but that we are part of the Ajahn Chah tradition. The training
here is not one which is restricted to this one place; there are
the branch monasteries Poo Jom Gom and Dtao Dum, and all
the other branch monasteries where over a period of time you
will have the opportunity to spend time in. You’ll also have the
opportunity to live away from the other Western monks in Thai
33 upajjhaya: the preceptor in the ordination ceremony
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