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.