The Journey of Chand: Overcoming a Father's Curse : หน้า 54/200

think her mother had insulted him. This infuriated her father, thinking she was taking her mother’s side. In anger, he cursed Chand to deafness for 500 lifetimes. Many Thai folks believe that the parents’ words are sacred and potent. Chand worried that her father’s curse would come true for her. She wished to ask for her father’s forgiveness so the curse could be lifted. Unfortunately, she never had the opportunity to do so until he died. On the day her father passed away, Chand was out working in the rice field. When she came home after a long day, she saw everybody crying for her father. It is a Thai tradition to ask a dying person for forgiveness for any wrongs done to the person. Everybody had already asked for his forgiveness, except for Chand. His death profoundly affected Chand’s life. Most Thai people believe in rebirth. She worried that she would be reborn deaf as a result of her father’s curse. Now that her father had passed away, the only place to find him was in the afterlife realm. Chand left home in 1935 when she was 26 years old to look for the Great Abbot at Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen in Thonburi, a legendary monk known for supernormal meditative powers. While working in the household of Mrs. Liab, a benefactor of Wat Paknam, Chand met a meditation master, Thongsuk Samdaengpan, a leading disciple of the Great Abbot. Chand practiced meditation with Thongsuk Samdaengpan for two years. She eventually attained the Dhammakaya, a high state of absorption