Today was the first day of going back to normal scheduling again without the marathon meditation sessions in the afternoon. There was a request for a retinue of monks from WPN to go to another temple to perform some chanting rites for a stone. I think it’s a ceremony where a lot of monks are required and there will be loads of monks from other monasteries too. The abbot asked but I kindly declined since I felt I needed to get used to the routine here first.

This was also robe washing day. The monks would gather at the dye shed to wash their robes with boiling water and jackfruit wood dye. Standard detergent would wash out the dye and since all the monks here dyed their own robes using the dye from jackfruit wood. It was interesting to see how it was done but I just used normal detergent since I had robes with artificial dye. Washing the large robes by hand was not trivial.

I did the usual sweeping around the kuti as the schedule was returning somewhat to normality, but did get very tired and had to take a nap after midday. I met Tan M. who is one of the two majjhima even though he looks really young. Turns out he’s from Laos and like all the monks here he’s a really nice guy. I told him of my irrational fear of tukkae and he suggested some chants to comfort myself.

After Wan Phra the Nam Pana becomes Sangha Tea so we went to the tearoom where the abbot joined to share some of his wisdom with us. Then he had to leave with a group of monks from WPN to go perform the rite for the establishment of a new bot at another monastery.

I decided to forego the sauna once more as I thought it would not be good as the temperature was rather warm outside. Instead I went to the library as it’s open all night after Wan Phra and read some more of Stillness Flowing. It’s Ajahn Jaya’s biography of Ajahn Chah and a truly fascinating book. There were a lot of good books in there and it will be a good place to spend some time.

I was so knackered that I left at 7:30pm and did the evening chanting myself. Then I chanted the 2 chants that Tan M. suggested by the candlelight to save some torch battery and went to bed.

majjhima Middle; appropriate; just right. Also used to refer to a monk of five to ten years’ standing.