Understanding a Good Life: Insights from Luang Por : หน้า 33/164

Meeting #4 29 February 2009 - Ashram During the Peace Revolution Conference, the participants (who came from Africa, Australia, the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia) were fortunate enough to have a meeting with Luang Por. Little did they know just who they were meeting, or the effect that he or his Dhamma lecture would have on them, even though we tried to prepare them for it prior to the meeting itself. By "prepare", I simply mean that we taught them a bit about Thai culture and the history of the Wat, the protocol of proper etiquette around monks, and the hierarchy of the monks. There is, after all, a definite "ranking" of monks depending on the number of years they have been ordained. Luang Por is one of the original founders of the Wat, and "ranks" third in the line of succession from the Abbot. He has been a monk for over forty years. So here we are, back at the Ashram, in another, larger room. After we are all seated (and that means all of the participants, the mentors, the sponsors, the Upasikas, the Upasoks, and anyone else who is around the Ashram at this time - about 80 people), the translators are in place, and the room is quiet, Luang Por enters, smiling. He greets everyone cordially, and then begins a talk on how to live a "good" life. This is a talk that is, of course, important to each of us, no matter what culture we come from, what occupation we are in, whether we are single or married, or what age we happen to be. And this is to be the first Dhamma talk in which he alone spoke. There really was to be no dialogue, as I was about to find out. "What is a good life?" Luang Por asks. "And how do we obtain one? Where, in fact, do we even begin to look to discover how it starts or what we can look at to define it? "Living a good life, it seems to me, is a life that is lived in peaceful co-existence and happiness. And this happiness, or sense of contentment, is a life that is formed as soon as we are born. But what happens as soon as we are born? We are dependent on our guardian's good will, are we not? We are independent, but we are not independent. We have lived within our mother, but now, when we are born, we are completely independent. We start our life dependent on other people, even though we think we are independent!" He pauses and smiles, for the effect, I think. "As soon as we are born, then, we have some automatic responses and some basic needs. We need food, shelter, clothing, medicine, and some people would say that we need love.