I went on an outing today to a monastery in Sakon Nakhon to enshrine a chedi. This involved a lot of monks getting together to pass baskets filled with small Buddha relics along a line spiralling to the top of the chedi. Tan Ajahn Kevali had asked for volunteers and I thought that it would be a good idea to go since I’d probably never get this opportunity again. Our team consisted of the abbot, 5 monks including myself and a couple of samaneras.

Monks are expected to be self-sufficient inside and outside their resident monastery and this outing was no different. In fact it was very challenging. Since our abbot was a relative junior (even though he’s been a monk for over 20 years) he would seek out and pay respects to more senior monks throughout the monastery. This happened to be a gathering of 123 monks from 73 monasteries.

It was tough from the get go when we got out of the van. When travelling between monasteries monks would have to wear the outer robes over the shoulder, just like on the alms round. As soon as we left the transport and inside the monastery area, the other monks switched their robes to expose their right shoulder with expert proficiency. As I was still strugging to shift my robes about, I could see that our abbot had identified and moved towards his first target and the other WPN monks followed to his exact beat. There was a moment of panic as I tried my hardest to secure my robes as the abbot along with the other 4 monks went to their knees before a senior monk and prostrated three times in unison.

It was truly a sight to behold, that this was the Western Sangha on display showing the result of their practice and discipline. I could feel nothing but shame as I was always half a step behind, struggling with the pain as I got on my knees each time. We would’ve been great without me but instead ended up looking average. I felt very sorry for the abbot for failing to represent WPN properly even when he told me not to worry. It appeared that WPN and the abbot himself were held in very high regard and he was asked to give a Dhamma talk that morning even though there were so many more senior monks about.

We also had our meal there and what I’ve come to know with monks at events like these is that no one gave out instructions on what to do or where to go. You have to rely on your common sense but luckily as a junior monk, you’d be expected to simply follow your seniors. “Be like a mirror” was what Tan S. told me on the first day. This was made somewhat more difficult as there were over a hundred monks swarming everywhere and I learnt how easy it was to lose someone when everyone wore similar coloured robes and had no hair.

Eventually I did find them and we had our meal. There was no one to set the eating pace this time as our abbot sat in a different area for senior monks, so I simply kept glancing at our most senior monk. The food turned out to be very good and it was the first time in a long time that I had ice-cream. I was a little surprised at how many other monks outside of WPN had smartphones. Throughout the event the senior monks would often take videos and selfies. It just wasn’t a good look for monks I thought.

The other surprising thing was how no one lost their flip-flops. We took them off when entering a building and I completely forgot where I left mine as soon as we exited the fourth or so building in close succession. When I turned to check, I was met with a sea of yellow/brown flip-flops that all looked exactly the same. Luckily mine were slightly different and I eventually found them but the other monks seemed to have found theirs too somehow. The trip would begin and end in the back seat of the 8-person van. I never appreciated the luxurious comfort of an air-conditioned van this much before.

We came back just in time for robe washing and I got to see Tan S. dye his lower robe for the first time. I had seen him sew the robe himself in the past few days but he must have begun a while back. Starting with the plain white cloth he immersed it in a dye made from jackfruit heartwood and squeezed the cloth with his hands. This also explained why all the monk’s hands at WPN were stained every few days as they also used some of the dye to wash their clothes.

The process of making the dye itself was very labour intensive. It took 3 days and many monks taking turns to watch the fire as it boiled the water but not burning the concentrate. Once the cloth was dyed evenly, it had to be hung rolled up on the clothing line the first few times to ensure that the dye didn’t drip out.