Phramongkolthepmuni: A Legacy of Dhammakaya Meditation : หน้า 48/200

44 PHRAMONGKOLTHEPMUNI and attention in practicing and teaching his meditation method to the general public. The Dhammakaya Knowledge that he rediscovered was so profound that he aimed to use it to help all beings reach an end of all defilements and free from the cycle of rebirth. In 1918, Sodh Chandasaro was appointed abbot of Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen. His reputation as a meditation master and the miracles associated with Buddha amulets created by him made him a sought after spiritual teacher. He organized a 24-hour meditation workshop to train gifted meditators. Many of his students reached the highest level of meditative attainment known as attaining the Dhammakaya. He was also the first Thai preceptor to ordain a westerner as a Buddhist monk. He later rose to higher monastic rank with a new monastic name of Phramongkolthepmuni. Phramongkolthepmuni passed away in 1959 at age seventy-five. He became one of the most revered Buddhist monks in Thailand’s history. After his death, his top disci- ple, a nun by the name of Chand Khonnokyoong, continued to further the legacy of the Dhammakaya Knowledge on his behalf. Along with her two outstanding students, Chaiyaboon Suddhipol and Padej Pongsawat, who later became the Abbot and Vice Abbot of the Dhammakaya Temple, she went on to find the Dhammakaya Temple which later became the largest Buddhist temple in the world. The Dhammakaya Knowledge rediscovered by Phramongkolthepmuni has helped transformed the lives of millions. The Dhammakaya Tradition, the meditation method --- 9 It was said that the Dhammakaya Knowledge had disappeared from this world for five hundred years after the death of the Buddha