What Makes Santi Asok Different?

The Tripitaka This is the large set of books with the teachings of the Buddha. These teachings form the basis of Asoke members' lives, both ordained and layperson. Phaw Than explains it clearly and expands on it to make precepts and the Noble Eight Fold Path easier to understand and follow. He says that the Tripitaka is hugely misinterpreted at a fundamental level by mainstream Buddhists. Some areas where we differ from the mainstream arise in part due to the mainstream's misinterpretations, and flagrant violations, with some examples as follows:

Vegetarianism The vase majority of us always eat vegan and live a largely vegan lifestyle for many reasons. Animals are considered to be our counterparts, friends, and family. Just as we wouldn't eat the flesh of other people, we don't eat the flesh of other animals. It's a way to make merit and to live longer. In determining not to be responsible for animal abuse, we feel happier and lighter, more joyful. Eating vegetarian balances and perfects our internal energy. Eating meat does more to upset and throw out of whack the energy waves of the unity and oneness of all life on Earth. Also, our voracious eating of meat destroys environmental balance. These and other teachings of the Buddha regarding vegetarianism can be found in the Vinaya. In addition, there are modern day health warnings against consuming meat and dairy products and, many Thais are unfamiliar with dairy products.

Footwear Most of us walk barefoot, yet some prefer not to, and others must wear sandals for health reason. Monks, novices, and aspirants must walk barefoot except for health or safety reasons. Neither the Buddha nor the monks and nuns practicing with him wore footwear. It's unnecessary and there are good reason to walk barefoot. Going without is part of our frugal lifestyle, we massage our feet with each step (consider this to be incidental Foot Reflexology!), and we strengthen our resistance to disease this way. Plus, most shoes and many sandals are made for fashion,and are incompatible with following the seventh precept.

Different Color Robes Asoke monks and novices wear brown robes. The Buddha didn't want monks to wear bright showy colors that excite the senses. The Tripitaka is clear that the Buddha prohibited monks and nuns from wearing robes of seven colors. They are yellowish-orange, indigo blue, yellow, red, pinkish-red, black, and pink. So why do most monks wear orange? After World War Two a Chinese man in Bangkok started dying robes orange because the color resembles gold. He sold the robes to laypeople to offer to monks. Both monks and laypeople took a liking to this new color; it stuck and is now tradition. But monks should teach that this is a breach of Buddhist practice.

Eyebrows Asoke monks and novices don't shave their eyebrows. Only in Thailand do monks and novices shave them. The reason goes back a few hundred years to a war with Burma and is completely unimportant today. The Buddha never had anyone shave them.

Money In keeping with the Buddha's teaching, monks and novices absolutely do not keep nor use money. This is very clear in the Tripitaka but is almost universally ignored by most mainstream monks who accept money, buy things all the time, and many monks with status even have enormous bank accounts.

Statues Asoke has only one Buddha statue, at one Asoke temple. These statues and other images of the Buddha can't represent him and he implored his followers to not produce any images of him for worship. Phaw Than doesn't want to prevent Thais from prostrating before statues; it's just that he would prefer that they know the reasons and to be mindful of them while prostrating.

Enlightenment Phaw Than teaches that enlightenment is realizable by everyone in this very lifetime. Most Thais generally consider that only monks have even a slim chance of coming to understand the whole of reality. One characteristic of total enlightenment is to be completely free of defilements every moment of our lives. Following the precepts, and the Nobel Eight Fold Path is the way. Following the precepts is the foundation of Buddhist practice so that's what we emphasize while going about our daily lives. Admittedly, it's atrociously difficult to remove all of one's defilements. But patiently and steadfastly following the precepts and the Nobel Eight Fold Path is the way.

Female Novices Only in Asoke are women allowed to ordain in Thailand. They have been ordained by Asoke monks and follow ten precepts just like male novices, so they are called female novices. For various reasons the number of female novices is kept low. In general women have more defilements, so need more supervision than men. This ensures that only those who are really serious about the practice can ordain. There are many more women in Asoke than men and if all who want to ordain are allowed to, the discipline in the Sangha (order of monks and novices) will deteriorate. Buddhism will degenerate. The Buddha was very reluctant to ordain women and refused to do so for about twenty years. Like it or not, these are teachings of the Buddha. As of December, 2002 the ratio of female novices stood at about one to four. But now that there are over one hundred monks, one woman can ordain for every three men who ordain.

Full Time Buddhist Communities Because Asoke has female novices, the four necessary people of a Buddhist community are present: monks, female novices, lay men, and lay women (many other Thai temples have the other three). Outside of Asoke there are no other such communities in Thailand. Even where all four are present at other places in other countries, where are you gonna find anything like Asoke?!

Supernatural/Superstitions Superstitious practices such as sprinkling holy water and consulting mediums for various purposes are outside the realm of the Buddha's teaching, therefore are completely discouraged in Asoke practice. The same goes for fear of and propitiation of spirits, such as making offerings to the ubiquitous spirit houses. These are practices common to popular Buddhism, which is a mixture of Brahmanism, Buddhism, and animism. There are of course a few individual Asoke members who do fear and at least ceremonially propitiate such spirits but they understand that this is outside of Asoke teaching and practice.

The Precepts and the Noble Eight Fold Path (See the Explanations above.) Unlike the great majority of Thai Buddhists, the precepts and the Noble Eight-Fold Path are the basis of everyday Asoke life. Go anywhere at anytime and you can probably find someone breaching at least one of the very fundamentals of practice. This applies both in and out of temples. Killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, indulgence in intoxicants, and wrong occupation are all basics and are all routinely shunned. Breaching these basics is much less common among Asoke members.

Meditation Phaw Than says that meditation such as sitting and walking meditation are helpful but must not be a large part of one's practice. Buddhist meditation is actually Right Concentration, the eighth step on the Noble Eight-Fold Path. It is only realizable by following the first seven steps. Asoke stresses that we should strive to meditate on mind and body at every moment of every day. The specific way of meditation is outlined in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Sutta, or, the Maha Satipatthana Sutta. At each moment of each day when we make contact with something or someone that we like, dislike, or whatever, anything that pulls us away from neutrality, from equanimity, that's the time to use Right Understanding and wisdom to see the folly in following our emotions and getting emotionally caught up in it all. This is our main practice of meditation.

Boon Niyom (This and Farmer Training below are not examples of misunderstanding or violations by mainstream Buddhists.) This is an economy based on doing good! This is our alternative to capitalism, which we regularly condemn. Boon Niyom policies and principles are, to serve selflessly, and for free; sell quality products at low prices, or when possible to give away free; to be considerate, diligent, frugal, honest, meticulous, and thoughtful, and to never ever cheat anyone. We make interest-free loans within the organization, and, we don't buy anything on credit. Our pricing system is simple: sell a little above our cost (but below market prices), sell at our cost, sell below our cost, or give away free. Our maxim is; work for free, be debt free, charge no interest, and, put all the wealth in to the central fund and share it evenly. Policies governing our work are to impart goodness in people, to accumulate merit, and to refine work for better results. Another Boon Niyom idea is to be content with having just one's basic needs met without feelings of jealousy or animosity towards those who have more.

One of the more striking things about Asoke members is that almost all of us work for free. To want something more than just enough in return for work is a form of greed. To work for free is selflessness, which is in complete agreement with the Buddha's teachings. (Our basic needs are met so money isn't necessary for most of us. But, most of us do use some money just the same.) Free labor helps to keep costs down and is one reason that prices are lower at all of the Asoke's various shops at every Asoke location. Our goal is to give everything away free but this isn't yet feasible. For the most part we sell a little above our cost. Most commodities have price labels with our buying cost and our selling cost to show our meager profit. Don't think of this as boasting, but instead look at it as honesty in our marketing.

Farmer Training We accept roughly two hundred farmers a month for intense five day hands on training. We teach the five Buddhist precepts and their value in everyday life, three fields of work we firmly believe help salvage the world (sustainable farming, recycling, and liquid fertilizer production). We exhort them to give up base vices (all intoxicants including tobacco use, gambling, extra-marital sex, going to bars and clubs, befriending bad people, and laziness), to give up luxuries, and to live simply. Nearly all trainees are farmers in debt and are given by the creditor financial institution a three-year debt moratorium for implementing what they earn. Asoke does this training at nineteen locations all over the country.

Daily Life There is lots of variation here so the following is merely a summary. We wake up any time between three and five thirty. Going to bed late is bad for one's health and getting up late is a form of laziness. Many monks, novices, and laypeople who get up before four o-clock go to the Morning Preaching at the Main Hall until about five forty-five. Some monks and female novices go on their alms rounds, most students go to school, some people start work, while others attend to personal chores. Many of us work until nine-thirty or so then go to the Main Hall to listen to various people relate a wide variety of things. Eating at the Main Hall starts about ten-thirty and most of us work until nine-thirty or so then go to the Main Hall to listen to various people relate a wide variety of things. Eating at the Main Hall starts about ten-thirty and most people finish by eleven-thirty. All monks, novices, aspirants (those who are on the path to becoming monks and female novices), and many laypeople eat only once a day (consuming only plain water outside of this one meal) so they may take longer to eat than those who have two or three meals. Very few of us eat three meals because it's considered more than necessary and even unhealthy to eat that often. After eating some people go straight to work while others attend to personal chores. We work until about four-thirty or five when many of us have a second meal. Others keep on working 'til various times or will resume eating after having dinner. Most of us go to bed by nine.

Here is some idea of the variation of daily lives here. As of September 2002 there were three hundred eighty-six people here. There are monks, novices, aspirants, students, people in very poor health, a few small children, while most of the rest of us are none of the above except that we are aged from twenty to about eighty years old! So maybe you can imagine that there is no one routine that even most of us follow. Monks and novices supervise and work right alongside laypeople on all sorts of jobs including construction, tailoring, teaching, sound engineering, radio broadcasting, umbrella-making, and others. Students wake up at four or five, have class from six-thirty to nine every morning except Monday, and study Buddhism for two hours, two evenings a week. A few elderly people are not capable of much work and don't leave their homes very often. But there are people who take care of them. Most elderly folks are healthy, go to the Morning Preaching, and work in various capacities here at Pathom. The rest of us work as much as we can. Arguably, some of us overwork ourselves- to the detriment of our health.

Our main task is to practice Buddhism. In part, that means to be mindful and equanimous all the time. Notice that this word "equanimous" has the same root as "equilibrium" and "equality." In Buddhism it means to be on the middle path, to not tend toward any extremes, and to be emotionally unaffected by the ups and downs of life. It does not mean to be indifferent, cold, or uninvolved. Indeed, we are involved in improving the welfare of living beings, especially those with a soul, and I dare say, concerned about the whole of existence in the entire universe. We are certainly involved in life, but try to keep proper perspective. Where's the value in getting emotionally caught up in life's events? Answer that for yourselves.

Some basic ideals of our way of life are as follows: to dare to be poor; to be strong in the face of criticism; to favor thoughtful creativity; to be diligent, frugal, joyful, polite, and peaceful; to reduce and abandon anything which is not necessary, particularly worldly defilements; to extinguish all indulgences; to completely wipe out all desires; and to realize Nibbana (Nirvana).