Luang Por Liem: The Ways of the Peaceful - Wat Pah Nanachat

laypeople or householders 37 , who do as they like and act
according to their moods. But we have standards and principles in
the way we live. We are those who see the disadvantages and
dangers in the round of rebirth.
We need to have principles in our lives. At least we need sila.
Keep in mind that sila is one of the ornaments of One Gone Forth.
We need to be cautious and restraint in the way we live, in regard
to our manners, our actions and our expressions of body and
speech, so they don’t become inappropriate. We need to keep
them appropriate. This needs to be cared for and maintained. In
our practice we take on the principle of living as one who goes
against the stream of lay life and the stream of worldly attitudes.
We know what that stream is like. It is constantly influenced by
delusions, desires and defilements. It is always lacking and
insatiable, like a fire that can never have enough fuel. So we go
against the stream and don’t act in conformity with our likes and
our moods. We have guidelines for practice, such as the ascetic
practices (dhutangas 38 ), which are for directing our life as
someone who doesn’t follow the stream of the world. We know
that the stream of the world is a stream of blindness. It’s a stream
in which there is no freedom, in which one is not one’s own
master.
We need to change our character and habits, change our
feelings, not allowing them to be like those of laypeople who
follow their moods and the stream of their desires. People’s
37
In Thailand there is an idiom saying that the “third sex” besides male and
female is “ordained”.
38
dhutanga (Pali): austere ascetic practices that the Buddha allowed for
shaking off defilements, such as eating only once a day or refraining from lying
down.
95