Meetings with a Dhamma Master: An Encounter with Luang Por Dattajeevo : หน้า 12/164

Nicings with a Dhamma Master MEETINGS WITH A DHAMMA MASTER Meeting #1 12 July 2008 – Ashram I have been invited to meet Luang Por Dattajeevo, the Vice Abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya, by a person named Elsebth, who is a Swiss woman running meditation retreats throughout Europe. She has a daughter named Joy, who is in high school here in Bangkok, and this meeting is to commemorate Joy’s birthday. This is a great honor for me, so Luang Pi Joshua (my son and a monk who currently resides here) tells me, because not many people get to meet the Vice Abbot in person. I, on the other hand, am somewhat hesitant to meet a senior monk, because he is considered a great meditator, and I am reluctant to meet someone who can instantly discern exactly who I am. I totally know what I have done in the past, and some of those things I would prefer to remain hidden from anyone else’s mind except my own. However, the day arrives and Jon (Josh’s father) and I bike over to the Ashram where I meet Elzbeth and Joy for our meeting. There is also a monk there who will translate for us if we need him to, however Luang Por’s English, I discover, is very good indeed because he attended graduate school in Australia prior to his ordaining as a monk. The Ashram is a low, single story building and the room where we enter is meticulously undecorated with walls of honey colored wood, wide comfortable wooden chairs of the same color, and wall to wall carpeting (and floor cushions) for people who prefer to sit on the floor. We are, indeed, comfortably seated… Elzbeth and Joy on floor cushions, Jon and me on some wooden chairs that are slightly lower than the dais for Luang Por. We all take our seats, and within a few moments, Luang Por Dattajeevo walks in, sees us, and his whole face lights up. He is in his mid-sixties, healthy looking – not thin, not chubby – and, of course, he’s got a bald head and he’s wearing saffron robes because, after all, he is a monk. He possesses an impossible face to describe because it is so endearing: he looks at you as though you are the coolest person in the world, whereas in reality I have come to learn, HE is the coolest person in the world. I am instantly a groupie, although I have