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

nature of animals to live in constant competition. Animals lack a
sense of shame and just go ahead and do things. They do things
without any wisdom. To live like that, one supports lowmindedness
and uses one’s intelligence in bad ways. Whenever
we start thinking like that, we need to correct ourselves. Don’t
drift off in this direction; don’t fall prey to these things. If there
are areas where we have gone too far, we need to try to correct
our course.
Now that we are close to entering the pansah, especially this
year, there are many requests to Wat Nong Pah Pong from branch
monasteries to send some monks for the pansah, so they can hold
a kathina donation-ceremony 24 . What’s the point of requesting
monks to spend the rains in a monastery only for the sake of the
Kathina-offerings? We are practitioners. Mostly, those who ask
for monks are not prepared to train them, and don’t have the
capabilities and knowledge needed to give support to young
monks in their growth and development. They keep on asking and
the training withers away. The monks that go don’t benefit from it
at all – they don’t develop good, beautiful qualities, nor improve
their character traits and habits.
What happens is that things go to ruin. The reason for this is
that the monks fall prey to cherishing external, material goods
(amisa-puja). They fall into what Ajahn Buddhadasa used to call
‘a heap of excrement’. He took this comparison from the
discourses of the Buddha – Ajahn Buddhadasa doesn’t speak
24 According to the vinaya, it is only when at least five monks have spent the
pansah together in a monastery, that this monastery is allowed to receive the
usually very generous ‘Kathina-offerings’.The Kathina ceremony takes place
once a year and for many monasteries this is the only time when a large amount
of donations are made.
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