Chand's Journey to Enlightenment : หน้า 18/135

Chand’s father was a good family man but he was addicted to alcohol. He was gentle when sober, but unpleasant when drunk. One day, he became so drunk that he fell asleep under the house while the family slept inside (a village house is usually built on stilts to protect from wild animals and flooding). He was mumbling and snoring so loudly that it bothered the family. In disgust, her mother called him a “sparrow” (a Thai expression for a worthless person) that leached off of her. This remark wounded his pride. An angry asked all the children if they heard their mother insult him. The children stayed quiet. Innocently, Chand said that she did not 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 eternities. 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 for 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. When Chand was 18 years old, she heard about the supernatural meditative powers of the Great Abbot of Wat Pakham Bhashichannel (Phramongkol-thempuni, 1885-1959) who taught an advanced form of meditation known as the Dhammakaya Knowledge. Through this Knowledge, an adept meditator could use his inner transcendental body to traverse to the afterlife realms. Some of the Great Abbot’s disciples were known to have this ability. Chand wished that one day she would have the opportunity to meet the Great Abbot and learn his Knowledge from him. And left home in 1935 when she was 26 years old to look for the Great Abbot at Wat Pakham Bhashichannel in Thonburi, a neighboring city of Bangkok. She learned that a woman by the name of Madam Liab was a regular benefactor of Wat Pakham. She applied for a job with Madam Liab to become her domestic help. She did this to gain access to the inner circle of Wat Pakham and the Great Abbot so that one day she could become a disciple there. Madam Liab agreed to hire Chand. As time went by, Chand’s hardworking nature and truthfulness gained her the complete trust and confidence of Madam Liab. During this same time a meditation master from Wat Pakham by the name of Tongsuak Samdaengpan, a leading disciple of the Great Abbot, was teaching meditation at Madam Liab’s home. At Chand’s request, Madam Liab agreed to let her join the meditation class. Chand practiced meditation with Tongsuak Samdaengpan for two years. She eventually attained the Dhammakaya, a state of absorption in meditation where the mind becomes one and the same with the inner Body of Enlightenment, having penetrative insight into the reality of life and the world. This is a state where mental consciousness is at its highest.