A New Beginning

A New Beginning
I truly enjoyed being a novice in the monastery. When I had been there a year, we received a visitor who was to have a profound influence on my life. He was an old monk from a neighboring province coming to visit my teacher, or Achan. When the old monk met me he said, “This novice has a special gift. If he is well-trained he shall be a good monk.” I asked him how I could be a good monk as he said. His answer was to go with him to the forest where I could train my mind. The old monk felt this was a good opportunity for me. He felt it was much easier to teach those who are young, because their minds are pure and uncluttered. When people grow up there are many distractions to cloud their minds. A young boy’s mind is very clean, very soft, and easy to train. After my year’s education at the village monastery, I agreed to go with him to the forest. However, there was one thing that worried me, that really scared me. I told the old monk that I was afraid of ghosts.
He asked, ”Where are the ghosts?” “I don’t know,” I responded, ”but at night I’m very, very scared.” ”That’s because you’re afraid of the dark, not of ghosts.”

Stories
When I was a young boy my mother would tell ghost stories before I went to bed. Every night she would tell me ghost stories or folk beliefs. I liked to read and listen to them, but I was afraid when I was by myself. When my Achan asked me to stay with him in the monastery, I was especially afraid because the forest monastery was close to the cremation area. In Thailand 95 percent of the people are Buddhist, and in Buddhist tradition, when someone dies they are cremated at the cemetery. My Achan, or teacher, sent me to spend a night at the cremation spot nearby. Naturally, I was very frightened. The events of that night were influential in my life and practice.
Someone in the village had died and was to be cremated the night I was to stay there. Late that afternoon my teacher took me to the area and set up an umbrella and mosquito net for me to sit inside, next to the burning pile of wood. At about 4:00 p.m. the villagers put the body on the wood pyre and lit it. Afterward the remains would be returned to the family.