Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Dhamma or cheesebread

i am almost as stubborn as a monk i know.
the two thai women who came here for practice meditation left. they spend most of the time chatting cooking and eating, when it came to meditation or to chanting, they suddenly had stomach ache. in the morning from 7:00 till 11:00 they were cooking, eating and chatting, yesterday they went to buy water and came back 4 hours later. i admonished them, [one knows english and german] asked them to keep the monastic rules and the 8 precepts, [not to much sleep, no chatter, etc.], and to do more meditation.
i'm too strict, they said. they tried to convince me to let them do only little meditation on their own paste - without succsess.
one [a former donator] got angry, they went to lumpoh with me to complain about me. during talking with him, one told a story - until she was becoming aware that she had told me the contrary 5 minutes before.
lumpoh didn't know that but anyway said that they can stay and do as i say or go.
the one who had told the ly couldn't watch me afterwards and left with kitchen, food and stuff secretly while i did meditation. the other one didn't want to stay without kitchen and friend and left friendly this morning.
so no more german bread and creamcheese, finest cookies, salads and so on [everything from one of the most expensive supermarkets of chiang mai].
i'm glad i didn't sell the dhamma for cheese and bread.

3 comments:

Sister Tinh Quang said...

I wonder if those women would then brag to all their friends that they went on retreat at the monastery. You are not too strict. Watered down dhamma practice is just that ... watered down. It must be kept pure.

Anonymous said...

I just hope that when i can become a nun i can be ordained with you. I'm Thai, so i know first hand how most Thai women are even while they are supposed to observe the 8 precepts. i'm serious about becoming a nun where you are, you just gave me a lot of hope.

Phalañānī said...

Dear Sister, dear anonymous,

thanks for backing up. I never doubted that what i did and said is correct in this case. But i was not sure that Lumpoh would stand behind me.

You can probably never ordain with me, but the good new, you can ordain somewhere else and than stay with me if you so wish. I hope you keep in touch until the time for your ordination comes.

With the best wishes
Phalanyani