Tan T. proved to be a rather fierce alms round leader. I spoke to him beforehand to ask if he could potentially go a little slower. He still went really fast anyway. He did come over afterwards as I looked rather forlorn. His reasoning was that since the number of steps was constant, you might as well do it faster to get it over and done with and that the pain was only psychological.

If only it were that easy! I could only tell him that I’d try my best to follow him. As painful as it was, I knew that he was absolutely right. There was nothing else that I could say or do really other than grit my teeth and get through it. Honestly if I were to compare myself now to three weeks ago, I had made remarkable progress. However, I was nowhere near the level of the full-time monks and I reminded myself that I was only here part-time.

At the kuti I found that I could protect myself from the sun by hanging the outer robe on the clothesline. This way it was manageable in the late morning. Any later than that then it gets too hot anyway. I haven’t read much of Ajahn Jaya’s book recently but started reading some other rubbish to do with diets and ancient myths and legends instead. Time was passing fast now that I’ve gotten into the rhythm. In no time it was evening chanting and bedtime again.