Khanti - Wat Pah Nanachat

monastic life is not just a matter of a number of individuals
wearing yellow robes and applying themselves to the
development of sila, samadhi and pañña (morality, meditation
and wisdom) in the same physical space. As Sangha, we’re
more than the sum of our parts. At least we can be more than
the sum of our parts, and I think that’s an important ideal in
monastic communities – to try to bring about that kind of
situation where we feel that something bigger is happening
here than simply us coming together as individuals with our
imperfections, with our faults, our weaknesses, our strong
points and our blind spots. Being together in this through the
sincerity of our effort we are creating something marvellous. It
may not seem that way on a daily basis – and there can be
many disappointments and difficulties, that’s true – but I think,
whenever we step back a little from what we’re doing in this
monastery here – perhaps through spending time with
laypeople or visiting monasteries in which the standard of
Vinaya is not so high –we can really see the value of the form
that we have inherited from Ajahn Chah.
Remember that the way we do things here is not just
something that we’ve come up with ourselves; we conduct
ourselves and follow practices which were taught, encouraged
and modelled by Ajahn Chah. I have a very strong faith that
Ajahn Chah was an arahant 4 and to me, that gives many of the
korwats 5 and the minor rules he emphasized a weight and a
significance that perhaps they might not have otherwise. Sure,
some of the observances and some of the minor Vinaya rules
can, in isolation, seem eccentric; I remember one layman who
came to visit saying parts of it seemed straight out of Monty
4
arahant: the final stage of the four attainments of liberation or
enlightenment.
5
korwats: the regulations, etiquettes and routines of a specific
monastery.
6