Undisclosed Title : หน้า 14/163

the temple, it was already too late — all too often they were carried into the temple feet-first on a pall ready for the cremation! Some considered their welfare both in this lifetime and the next. They accumulated wealth both for the benefit of themselves and their families and also for the benefit of the monastic community. They visited the temple, kept the basic Buddhist Precepts and practised meditation as taught by the monks of the temple. They entered the monkhood for the duration of a rainy season (three months) as part of their maturation process in order to show gratitude to their parents for giving them life and bringing them up. Some practised good deeds for only part of their lives — some for part of their youth, entering the temple to serve the monks and study Buddhism. Some practised good deeds only in middle age and indulged their childhood and old age with eating, sleeping and making merry. Others came to the temple only when awakened to the value of life by old age and sickness — but by this time they could offer little to the religion — they had come to lean on the religion rather than the religion leaning on them. There were, however, a rare few born with a vocation to search for an end to all defilements, who resolved that the present lifetime will be their last. These were the few devoted men and women who enter the temple at an early age, not distracted by family life but who sacrificed their lives for Buddhism and trained themselves in the tradition of the Buddha all their lives. Among these select few are those monks in Thailand who ordained for life as opposed to taking temporary ordination. Such a monk was Luang Phaw Wat Paknam. 16