Than Saman Kaen La Wattano

Why I ordained

I have studied the teachings of many forest monks in ThailaNd who teach Vipassana. They inspired a surge of faith in me. I felt that this was the path; that this was the answer to the question of how to spend mY life. Should I take the worldLy path that the majority of us choose or should I take the path of Dhamma which only a minority of us choose, and to become a monk? But my faith wasn't one hundred percent. The worldly life still pulled hard and I followed.

Eventually I read teachings of the Venerable Buddhadasa (or Phuttatha in Thai) in 1986. After ordaining for three months, as is tradition, in Thailand, I read "Khu Meu Manut" (published in English as "Handbook for Humanity") and was deeply moved. In addition to this I was impressed with others by the Venerable Buddhadasa such as "Mond Dan Nai" and "Kan Seuksa Ma Hang Duan." The one teaching that shook me the most was Sappay Tamm Nalan Aphiniwaysaya or that "Nothing whatsoever should be clung to."

I was now convinced that Buddhism was the way but I didn't know how to practice. All the revered monks say the same things, let go of greed, anger, delusion, and spiritual defilements. But how? I still didn't know how. I still had to search for answers.

I Met Santi Asoke

Eventually I happened upon an issue of "San Asoke" (translates as Asoke Journal). After reading it I felt that surge of faith again. So I started to study Asoke's teachings. Asoke teaches to follow the five precepts, drop all six base vices, and eat vegetarian. These are the foundations for the practice. This was the answer to my question of how to eradicate greed, anger, delusion, and spiritual defilements. This was a clear answer, one that could really be put into practice. And I saw results. That is, it's the precepts that are the foundation of Buddhist practice. Wiping away one's spiritual defilements while knowing them for what they really are.

Using the precepts to purify and polish our actions, speech, and mind is to sweep away our defilements little by little. Our minds become purer and purer, and stronger and stronger. Thus our concentration becomes increasingly strong.

Wisdom, or mind, is the knower of everything. With it we know the precepts. We know our impurities, we know our mind that is washing away those spiritual impurities, and then we being to have Right Concentration. We know that we sill have impurities, but they are becoming milder and milder and we see that we have to keep on punishing ourselves. We tighten up our practice of following the precepts to the level of training in higher morality, higher mentality, and higher wisdom. We polish away our defilements from the base ones to the more moderate ones, to the finer, milder ones. Or we can say, from the six base vices, to the pleasures of the five senses, worldly pleasures and then the deeper levels of ego.

As we practice the Dhamma teachings we see fruits in having reduced and eradicated defilements. By looking at our minds over and over again we become firmly confident that this practice is the right path. We use the teaching of Buddhism to check ourselves, and to check our progress on the path. Our goal is to reduce and abandon spiritual impurities, greed, anger, and delusion. The more stridently we practice, the stronger our minds become rooted the more firmly grounded we become in following the precepts, the clearer we understand-with our increasingly short wisdom-our minds and our impurities, and the more we build and strengthen our piercing, penetrating, transcendent powers.

I Ordained with Santi Asoke

I decided to ordain with the Order of Asoke monks because I had practiced and weighed things out; I had deliberated until I saw clearly for myself that the teaching and practice of Asoke is the right path. This path leads to as much freedom from everything dissatisfying in life as one's status (ordained or layperson) allows and as solidly as one follows the precepts. That's it. It's up to each of us to follow the path with determination. And I believe that my status as a monk makes it easier to free myself from life's dissatisfaction. To this end the status of a monk is also more convenient than the status as a layperson. I am firmly confident in the power of following the precepts, of right Concentration, wisdom, faith, and in my own self that I can endure an persevere as a monk. It's not at all easy to become an Asoke monk, even harder to stay one for one's whole life, and I don't even need to talk about breaking through to Nirvana, which is infinitely more evasive.