Khanti - Wat Pah Nanachat

monasteries, where you can learn the language and the culture
more easily. Wat Pah Nanachat is blessed with two of its own
branches, Jom Gom and Dtao Dum, where we can live in more
solitude. The vision is of a rounded training.
As regards living with a new young abbot, please bear
in mind that even the greatest teachers are not always
competent in every area. There is a case, quite recently, where
one of the most respected of our teachers had a real problem
with a ghost in this monastery. He wasn’t able to deal with it
and had to go to invite another monk who is an exorcist to
come and help. Every monk has his strong points and his weak
points. Nobody is completely brilliant in everything. The idea
of living with a great enlightened teacher is very attractive to
all of us, I think. And fortunately in our monastic life most of
us will probably have that opportunity at some point, But it is
not a shortcut to spiritual progress. Often around great teachers
there is a lot of politics, a lot of jealousy, and monks who are
close to great teachers can easily become heedless and
conceited. So there are a whole bunch of different kinds of
challenges. There is always something else to learn from
monastic life. In whatever monastery we are living in, whoever
we are training with, it is the attitude of humbleness and
sincerity that counts.
I have spent many years in this monastery and I feel a
great affection for it and an enduring sense of connection. I
think that all of us previous abbots still feel a part of Wat Pah
Nanachat and want very much to support it. So I encourage you
all to live together as kalyana-mittas (good friends in the
Dhamma), which means trying to help each other to overcome
unwholesome dhammas and to develop wholesome dhammas.
Every one of us here is in training and we are all learning about
Buddha-Dhamma and developing slowly and gradually or even
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