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7 The Meditation Workshop "'Dhammakāya is the prime mover. No other thing is more significant in the whole of the cosmos."' (Phramongkolthepmuni) Compared to your average temple in Thailand, the regular schedule of Wat Paknam, and the crowds of people attending, would have been considered ample. Most temples would already have been congratulating themselves on the number of adherents and the successful maintenance of a full calendar of devotional events. However, Luang Phaw did not set his standards by the norm. He was always looking for better ways to increase the degree of understanding of Dhamma of his followers. In order to do this, he needed to redevelop the oral tradition of meditation teaching which was falling into desuetude in Thailand. The strength of Dhammakāya upon which the renewed tradition of meditation teaching had to be built, lay in the need for each meditator to verify for themselves experientially the success of the technique. The most useful help which Luang Phaw could give the majority of his followers was providing the time, space and opportunity for them to perfect their skill and first-hand experience in meditation. It was in response to this need that he led the innovative building at Wat Paknam of the ‘Rong-ngahn-tahm-vijja’ or ‘meditation workshop’. Luang Phaw described the merit of contributing to the building of the medita- 93