Buddhist Spectrum

Wat Pah Nanachat

First forest monastery in Thailand:

P. Rajakaruna

Wat Pah Nanachat is a Buddhist monastery in Northeast Thailand, in the Theravada forest tradition. It was established by Venerable Ajahn Chah Thera to provide English-speaking people the opportunity to train and practise in the way the Buddha taught his monks in the forests 2600 years ago.

Ven. Ajahn Chah Thera established Wat Pah Nanachat in 1975 as a place where his western disciples could live and train in the Dhamma-Vinaya. Ajahn Sumedo, an American, served as the first abbot; after 2 years he went to England and founded monasteries there. Ajahn Pabhakaro, the second abbot, now assists with running the monasteries in England.

Then, Ajahn Jagaro took over. He later established a monastery in western Australia just outside Perth. The current abbot, Ajahn Passanno, has been in charge since 2006. Originally mostly westerners and the old Thai trained at Wat Pah Nanachat. In recent years, however, a variety of Asians have added to the international atmosphere.

Today there are more than 100 branch monasteries of Ajahn Chah's Wat Nong Pah Pong in Thailand and around the world.

English serves as the primary langauge for communication and instructions, initially making easier for those not fluent in Thai to learn the traditional ways of monastic training, study the teachings of the Master and assimilate the appropriate behaviour for blending in harmoniously with the local culture.

The main purpose of Wat Pah Nanachat is to provide an environment for ordaining and training monks in the lifestyle and practices of Venerable Ajahn Chah and the other Forest Masters.

It is not a meditation centre that conduct retreats, but there are facilities for a limited number of male and female guests to stay at the monastery and practise with the resident community.

Guests are expected to follow the daily monastic routine and join in with all meditation sessions, meetings, and work activities Generally, guests have many hours of the day free for study and individual meditation practice. In order to make the best use of the situation it is expected that they will have had an orientation in Buddhist teachings and meditation.

The lifestyle encourages the development of restraint, modesty and quietude. It is the deliberate and sincere commitment to this way of life that facilitates a community atmosphere where people of diverse backgrounds, nationalities, and personalities can co-operate in the effort to work along the path of the Buddha and realize its goal of enlightenment.

Wat Pah Nanachat is situated in a small forest in the northeast of Thailand about 15 kilometres from the city of Ubon Rachathani. In 1975 Ven. Ajahn Chah established this monastic community which consists of monks, novices and postulants from a wide range of nationalities.

The training aims to follow the Dhamma - Vinaya, the teachings and code of monastic discipline as laid down by the Buddha, respecting both teaching and code of monastic discipline.

The monastic life encourages developments of simplicity, renunciation and quietude. It is a deliberate commitment to this way of life that creates a community environment where people of diverse backgrounds, personalities and temperaments can co-operate in the effort to practice and realize the Buddha's path to liberation.

Any one wishing to visit the monastery is recommended to arrive before 8.00 am in order to participate in the meal offering and have the opportunity to talk to the abbot. Wat Pah Nanachat is primarily a training centre for non-Thai nationals preparing themselves of take ordination.

A genuinely interested layman first would become a pakow (anagarika) wearing a white robe and taking an alms bowl. After 3 months he can start going forth as a novice and wear orange robes. Full ordination can take place about one year later.

Anyone considering being ordained a bhikkhu would benefit from a stay at Wat Pah Nanachat, whether he plans to ordain here or not. Unless fluent in Thai, one isn't likely to find this situation of thorough training combined with easy communication elsewhere in Thailand.

Those interested in staying for a period of time or considering ordination are requested to write to the monastery at least one month in advance, because space is limited. If one would like to visit and stay at Wat Pah Nanachat, he/she may write to: Guest Monk, Wat Pah Nanachat, Bahn Bung Wai, Ampher Warin Chamrab, Ubon Ratchathani 34310, Thailand.

At present, there is no permanent nun's community at Wat Pah Nanachat. Women interested in a monastic commitment (as a nun) are invited to contact affiliated nun's communities at Amarawathi Buddhist Monastery in England.

The monastic way of life

The contemplative life of a Buddhist monk or nun is one of simplicity, celibacy, and contentment. They do not seek the happiness based on sensuality and worldly distractions, but instead strive for the more subtle, inner happiness that blossoms forth when peace and wisdom take root in the heart.

Meditation is a central feature of the lifestyle, and monastics cultivate those qualities that support it; generosity, renunciation, loving-kindness, humility, integrity, determined effort and mindful awareness in all activities.

Since the time of the Buddha, monks have followed His example by living close to nature in forests, mountains and caves. Far from the stress and busyness that afflict city life, a tranquil, natural setting provides the perfect environment developing peace and wisdom. Forest monasteries in Thailand provide a clam atmosphere of silence and solitude.

Theravada Buddhism and the Thai Forest Tradition

The Theravada Buddhist Tradition looks to the original teachings of the Buddha as its guide and offers a comprehensive system for effectively exploring and liberating the deepest levels of consciousness.

It has flourished mainly in Southeast Asia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. The Monastic Sangha in its original for has survived throughout twenty-five centuries and is one of the oldest continuous institutions in history.

For 800 years Thailand has been under the serenely compassionate shelter of Buddhism, and the Buddha's teachings pervade almost every aspect of life within the kingdom, uniting the people into a harmonious, peace-loving society.

The contemporary Thai Forest Tradition, growing and blossoming throughout the 20th century, is a down-to-earth, 'back to the roots' movement that models its practice and lifestyle of that of the Buddha and his first generation of disciples.

The advent of the modern age notwithstanding, forest monasteries still keep alive the ancient traditions through following the Buddhist monastic code of discipline (Vinaya) in all detail and developing meditation in secluded forest.

Thailand has been blessed with a great number of impeccable and profoundly wise Buddhist meditation masters, and one of the most eminent was Venerable Ajahn Chah (Luang Por Chah), Born in 1918. He studied and trained in remote monasteries with some of the most impressive teachers of his era before establishing his own forest monastery near the city of Ubon.

Venerable Ajahn Chah Thera

Much of the western Theravadan Sangha originated here with the encouragement and support of Ajahn Chah. In Thailand, Ajahn Chah earned fame by his skill at training monks in high standards of Dhamma-Vinaa. He is one of the most influential monks of Thai Buddhism. Chah took robes as a novice at age 13.

He was ordained as a bhikkhu when he was 21. In 1946, following his 18th Rain Retreat, he set out as a phra tudong. wandering the forests and practising meditation in lonely places.

Teaching of Ajahn Mun and Ajahn Ginaree influenced him during this period, in 1954, Ajahn Chah accepted an invitation by his mother and villagers to return to Bun Gor to established a new monastery - Wat Nong Pah Pong. After many years of teaching, his health began to deteriorate, and he passed away in 1992.

Ajahn Chah taught in a direct, uncomplicated and straightforward manner. He thought with charm and humour and was a master at using everyday situations as opportunities for learning. He stressed that mere intellectual knowledge never brings true happiness.

This can only be known through personal experience and transformation, through the insight that arises naturally when the mind is radiant, quite and still. His popularity grew by leaps and bounds, and presently there are more than 300 forest monasteries that follow his teachings.

***

In truth
There isn't anything
To human beings

Whatever we may be it's only
In the realm of appearances.
If we take away the Apparent
And see the Transcendent,
We see that there isn't
Anything there.

There are simply the universal
Characteristics - birth
in the middle
And cessation in the end.
This is all there is.
If we see that all things are
Like this, then no problems Arise.
If we understand this
We will have
Contentment and peace.

Ven. Ajahn Chah
(Luang Por Chah)

The World through Buddhism

G.P.D. Senaratne

There is neither creation nor destruction. No beginning or end. Everything is in a state of continual transformation. Yet nothing happens without cause or reason.

Change is determined by a number of conditions, the most striking of which is known as the cause. The change is the effect of that cause. The cause of any change is the totality of all the conditions needed for its occurrence. The cause which produces the effect is the reason (hetu) of the change.

e.g. When a seed changes into a plant, in the seed which makes it become a particular plant is the reason for the change, while all the other factors like soil, water, light air and space needed for its germination and growth comprise the cause.

Similarly, the germ of a being capable of perception and feeling is the reason for the development of individuality (nama-rupa), while the union of parents, vegetative and animal activities and the environment are the causes that produce a particular individual.

No change occurs by itself. Every change stands in relation of cause to some other change. All changes in the world depend upon one another. This process which is observed everywhere is called in the Dharma - Pratitya Samutpada. He who has understood the chain of causation has understood the inner meaning of the Dharma.

If every change has a cause, and that cause again a cause, is there no first cause? The Blessed One replies - "If a man gathers all the grasses, herbs, twigs and leaves of the Indian Continent, arrange them in heaps saying - 'This is my mother, this is my mother's mother and so on and so forth, there would be no end seen to the mother's mother of this man even though he might reach the end of the heaps. What is the reason?

Without beginning and end is the World Process (Sansara). There can be no first cause. No absolute beginning. We come across no change instituting a series of changes which has not itself been preceded by some change. Hence it is meaningless to speak of a first cause. Science knows nothing about it.

According to Professor Riehl - "a first cause with which as a creative act the series of changes should have been originally, would be an uncaused change. The necessity of conceiving every change as effect which has its cause in a preceding change makes such an uncaused change unthinkable"

The Blessed One in a conversation with Anathapindika observed - "If the world had been made by a Creator, there should be no change, no destruction, no sorrow or calamity, no right or wrong, as all these things have to originate from the Creator. If that is so, how can the Creator be perfect? What would be the purpose of practising virtue?

Why should not people reverently submit to the Creator and offer humble appeals to Him, when pressed by necessity?"

The world in which we live is orderly, and governed by law. Therefore, laws imply a law giver. The simple fact is that when there are no disturbing causes, things remain the same.

The observed grouping of things and sequence of events is the same as saying that the world is as its is. No natural law is the cause of the observed sequence. Every natural law merely describes the conditions on which a particular change is dependent.

e.g. - A body falls to the ground as a result of the Law of Gravitation. But the Law of Gravitation is the precise statement of what happens when a body is left un-supported. A law of nature does not command that something shall take place, but it merely states how something happens.

While a Civil Law involves a command and a duty, a natural law is simply a description.

As Karl Pearson says "Law is a product of the human mind and has no meaning apart from man. The statement that man gives laws to nature, that its converse, has meaning".

The greater the number of cases in which a law has been observed to hold good, the greater the probability that it is universally true. If during the last five thousand years the Sun has risen daily from the East we are sure that the same will occur tomorrow.

Thus every natural law represents a limitation of our thoughts. This certainty is all that man is capable of obtaining and serve him as a guide in life. This is the limit..!

The explanation of phenomena by the purpose they serve belongs to the description of nature. Because the facts of this world can be described in a certain way, it does not follow that the world has been created.

But the necessity of thought which compels us to affirm that the world had a cause compels us to assume a cause of that cause and so on - 'AD INFINITUM'.

The Creator has decreed that he will reward and punish people in a life beyond the grave. The observance of the laws of morality is important to mankind and it has nothing to do with the belief of a future life or in a Creator.

He who thinks that this world would be a worthless place without immorality, is like the child who thinks that 'grown up' life must be a life of continual play and no work.

Morality finds its authority and sanction in the realities of life. observation proves that man is an emotional and volitional being, whose instinctive feelings and actions, sense aroused an sense guided, have become gradually enlightened by developing reason.

It is clear that the root of these emotional and volitional feelings is found in what we hold most precious in life. The instinctive affection that bind together the lives of kindred beings, is an example.

The caresses of the mates are not expressions of self regarding passions. They show affectionate consideration for each other and are truly bearers of complemental lives. Man should be truthful, just, merciful, loving and kind to his neighbours.

He should avoid vice and practise virtue because human society would become impossible if they were set at nought. Virtue possesses a self-propagating power, Vice and wrong are ever destroying them, Selfishness which aims at the destruction of others, leads to the destruction of self.

Sympathy and love are rooted in the bonds conditioning the continuance of the race by the faithful discharge of their duties to others besides themselves. Aristotle has said that "the man who could live without society must either be a beast or a god." Only as a member of society and by the observance of ethical laws can man enjoy durable bliss.

Buddha Pradeepa Daily News Vesak Journal - 2008

We invite Venerable erudite Bhikkhus and Buddhist Scholars to contribute articles to the Daily News Vesak Journal - 2008 - Buddha Pradeepa.

Snail mail: Editor, Buddha Pradeepa, Daily News Editorial, Lake House, Colombo 10.

E-mail: [email protected] (attention: Malini Govinnage)

The Dhammapada

Meditate earnestly

Meditate, O bhikkhus! Be not heedless. Do not let your mind whirl on sensual pleasures. Do not be careless and swallow a ball of lead, as you burn cry out "This is Sorrow."

(Bhikkhu Vagga - The Dhammapada)