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

experience some new possibilities for developing the practice, our
studies and in fulfilling our obligations.
For myself – after spending my first rains at Wat Nong Pah
Pong, I went to Wat Suan Gluay. Just a few days before entering
the pansah, Luang Por Chah wrote a letter of recommendation and
told me to go there. I thought, “Okay, that’s fine – no problem.”
So I travelled to Suan Gluay. By coincidence there was a
cremation just when I entered the monastery. “That’s a good
start,” I thought (Luang Por laughs). Wat Suan Gluay is an old
cremation site. I didn’t want to leave the site, thinking that this is
a good opportunity, because I wanted to challenge and test
myself. In the old days the burning of a corpse wasn’t such a neat
thing as today. As soon as the fire was lit, all the people would
run away. Nobody would stay. There is a notion that if one stays
around, the fire won’t really burn. So everybody had disappeared.
When the night came I had my turn to observe things. But there
wasn’t anything. There was a tiny bit of fear: I was afraid that
some dogs would come searching for something to eat. To go to
these places is also a good way of getting to know and train
oneself. That year we were sixteen monks and novices spending
the rains in Wat Suan Gluay. The huts were just these little
shacks. The food was good enough to stay alive from day to day.
The stay at Suan Gluay was also good in that it brought the
experience of getting to know some of my companions in the
monastic life. Before I had always depended on a teacher. Now, at
Suan Gluay, I was a senior monk with quite a few rainy seasons.
So I did my duty in that position. This is also one of the good
aspects of life in another monastery. We get the chance for further
training. In that rainy season I also gave the monks and novices
instructions on how to memorize the patimokkha.
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