Another interesting alms round today with Tan B. and I’m really fortunate to be walking with him. He recommended me a book called Forest Recollections which goes into how the Thai Forest Tradition came to be. He explained about how WPN should also be considered as part of a bigger whole of WPN, เต่าดำ and ภูจ้อมก้อม and each have their distinct personalities. WPN is like the city hub and the liveliest of them all where monks from all over congregate. เต่าดำ is a true jungle full of wild animals and you don’t see anyone at all other than when the monks gather for the meal. ภูจ้อมก้อม on the other hand is more cave like and he compared it to the surface of the moon where nothing lived.

He also recommended another book called Keeping the Faith which is a collection of newspaper articles from the Bangkok Post from 1980-2000 related to Buddhism in Thailand. Controversies surrounding the religion haven’t really changed all that much and we wondered if there was a newer edition available. I thought I was going to get through it quickly reading under my kuti but eventually I got so tired that I fell asleep for an hour.

Later in the day after Nam Pana I found a new refuge. There’s an old light blue (almost completely faded) deck chair at the dye shed that is the most comfortable chair I’ve found at WPN. It’s a wonder to think that I’d appreciate so much simply having a reclining chair but when you’ve spent so much time on the floor, it wasn’t all that surprising. There’s actually a cushioned one at the same place but it’s a bit too warm to use now. The best thing is there are almost no mosquitoes there. The same could not be said of the bowl drying shed.

Also, Ajahn K. is well again so the Ruam Sang route is over for us. It was great while it lasted but you know that when something becomes too comfortable, it won’t last long. I learnt so much in these two days from Tan B. about the practice and the history of WPN but I didn’t come to be spoon-fed knowledge while taking a stroll. I came to know and understand suffering!

I went to Ruam Sang on the alms round for the first time today with Tan B. You need a key to leave through the door that’s next to the dye shed. Then you can actually walk with flip-flops 90% of the way and it’s less of a route and more of a destination. You take your shoes off when you get there to go into a small roofed patio where laypeople sat waiting in a large semi-circle to offer us alms food. Having received the offerings, we sit on chairs before them to offer a blessing. Only two monks go on this route and since I was the junior monk, I would start off the second blessing which I’ve gotten to know by now.

With only two monks on the route and no laypeople along the way, I got to know Tan B. well. He told me about how he got into the robes and it’s amazing again to find out how people from various backgrounds end up in the robes in different ways. I also told him about my situation and how and why I became a monk. He’s given me some food for thought about motivations and obligations so I will contemplate on them.

Something odd happened today before the meal. Four of us sat in a row on the asana including myself. I was at one end and Tan T. at the other. He was in the kitchen area to receive alms food offered directly to the temple, a role that always falls to someone. Then when it came for the monks to get our food, normally the person sitting next to that monk still in the kitchen should bring his bowl to him. However, the two monks who sat between us both got up and went without picking up his bowl for him.

My cynical mind immediately went to work and I proceeded down a cycle of unwholesome thoughts. Why did they not help out a fellow monk? Wasn’t it obvious that he wasn’t there? How can they be so selfish! I contemplated on this for a while and there was no reason to assume any of it, nor would it do any good. Perhaps they simply forgot or were not aware. I knew I had a long way to go to combat this mindset that has set in over the years. In the end, I simply carried his bowl to the kitchen for him.

One very minor and lazy upside now that the Mahayana monk has joined is that I’m no longer the most junior monk at Nam Pana. This means that it was now his job to move the drinks box all the way to the head of the queue again. However because he’s from a different discipline, the box must now be re-offered so it’s now Nen P. who has to go deliver the box instead. I feel sorry for him because he’s already having a hard time attending to Ajahn K. Also he’s still learning English so sometimes he doesn’t understand what the Ajahn is asking for. This morning he thought he was being reprimanded when Ajahn was only telling him to go wash his bowl first because Ajahn himself didn’t like to be waited on. I should let Nen P. know that it wasn’t his fault and it’s a chance to eat a little longer.

The alms round route changed today and I will be going to Non Daeng for the next two weeks. All in all it was indeed a pleasant path. There was only a single short evil mud section in the middle coated with gravel. The other painful bits could be avoided via a sandy side path so it was comfortable overall. It seemed like Tan M. was being kind as well with his pace as a leader and we still got back at five to seven. I think it will be a nice path to show my parents on. Also I tried tightening the knot at the bottom of the bowl today. I thought if the overall strap was shorter it might help to keep my robes from becoming undone somehow. It ended up worse I think.

The days are definitely getting warmer now although this morning was much cooler than yesterday. I’ve resorted to sleeping on the sitting platform beneath the kuti with a wet towel on my chest during the day. Upstairs beneath the roof is now too warm to sleep for any extended period of time. The library is still a good place to hide away from the heat and engage in a good read. I’m taken up some non-fiction to take a break from Stillness Flowing.

The nights are getting warm too. I tried to close as many windows as possible because the tukkae like to hide on the other side of the opened window. I’ve ended up with a massive spider in the room instead. To be honest between the two I think I prefer the tukkaes so I should try and get along with them somehow.

Today did not start off well as I didn’t get much sleep last night. Not many people turned up for morning chanting either. This made the morning chores harder because I had to help Nen P. carry the big chairs used for last night’s Dhamma talk back to the office as well as clean the sala floors as usual. The alms round itself felt more painful in general which I think was related to the fatigue. The double layer kept coming undone as I didn’t have time to do it properly.

Sangha Tea was much more interesting than usual as Tan Ajahn spoke about the Dhamma talk last night. Then followed a long discussion about many different topics comparing Buddhism and Christianity, and how one would fit into the other from each other’s perspective. There was also a question about how one might prove or suggest that rebirth exists. Fascinating overall with input from many different people.

Today’s alms round was lead by Tan B. He was quite the considerate leader because he’s the first to wait after a long queue of offerings because the ones at the end were often left behind. Ajahn K. wanting to go to Ruam Sang meant that I was unlikely to get to go there in these final weeks. That’s OK though, but I do secretly hope that I don’t get the Station route again.

A new visiting monk recently joined from the Mahayana tradition. He’s Vietnamese but speaks good English and Thai. He had been a samanera in his tradition for 7 years and a monk for 3. He didn’t have an alms bowl because they don’t go on alms rounds and wears dark brown robes unlike our ochre ones. I was honestly not too comfortable with teaching him stuff about WPN because I hardly knew much myself. It did feel a bit lonely without Tan C. because normally we would have a chat in the bowl drying shed before patimokkha as neither of us could attend. Instead I waited back at the kuti and it was pitch black and very uncomfortable because the tukkae were out and hunting in full force.

The Dhamma talk was a little different as Tan Ajahn let the Christian priest (who’s son had come for a retreat at WPN) give a talk instead about the Protestantism. He really did give the whole overview and I almost fell asleep as it was all stuff that I had been taught at school. He gave his talk in German and Tan Ajahn translated into Thai for the laypeople. Somewhat humorously Tan M. was translating it in real time behind me for Tan S. and he couldn’t understand Thai but Tan M. could understand German.

Afterwards there was a quick Q&A session. As expected, the questions were all from a Buddhist perspective. One asked if certain controversial aspects that exist in Buddhism also played a part in Christianity, for example relating to money and donations. I think this was a great idea by Tan Ajahn otherwise people would never get to see things from a different perspective. Having a German Buddhist monk convey Christian beliefs in Thai in Ubon was not something that I think I’ll get to experience again. It was perhaps an ideal setting too as Tan Ajahn could describe certain aspects of Christianity in a way that made sense from a Buddhist context or perspective. The talk ended late at around 11pm and I didn’t get back and sleep until about 11:30pm.