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Purfurst was greeted with excitement by the Thai community because never before had a European expressed the wish to be ordained in Thailand’s Buddhist Sangha. He was accommodated in specially refurbished lodgings within the temple compound of Wat Paknam. Luang Phaw gave Purfurst personal tuition and after some initial experience in meditation in the confinement of his lodgings, when he was able to perceive inner brightness at the centre of the body, Luang Phaw allowed him to ordain as a novice. During his ordination as a novice, Luang Phaw applied his usual criterion that inner experience of enlightenment is a necessary prerequisite of becoming a monk. All the monks in the ordination quorum were adepts in meditation and helped Luang Phaw extend Purfurst’s meditation experience to attainment of the Dhammakāya. The ordination ceremony took four hours. Again, in the seclusion of his accommodation Sāmanera William, progressed with his meditation for five months more, until Visakha Puja Day of 1954, when Luang Phaw gave him the great honour of taking the full ordination as a bhikkhu and gave him the name ‘Kāpilavaḍḍho’. Luang Phaw told his supporters with pride: “Tomorrow a westerner will take ordination. He has sacrificed his personal happiness, left his people and crossed the seas to seek that which is good and true. To speak the truth, we Thai are Buddhists, who pay homage to the Buddha Sāsana. Is it not fitting that we should seek some opportunity to live with that which is good and true, and not let the days pass by in vain?” 1 Ten thousand people attended the ordination. Many others were inspired to be ordained.