in preserving elements of the oral tradition of medita-
tion in Theravada Buddhism against the homogenizing
influence of scripturally-based techniques of his time.
He had a significant pioneering input to the nascent
Sangha of Great Britain and is the pioneer of one of the
Thai interpretations of meditation and Dhamma most
visible beyond Thailand today. In spite of these contribu-
tions, Luang Phaw Wat Paknam ironically remains little
recognized in academic writing.1
The depth of the teachings of Vijja Dhammakaya dis-
covered by Luang Phaw Wat Paknam is hard to express
in words. Vijja Dhammakaya can be equated with the
Threefold Knowledge, Sixfold Higher Knowledge and
the Eightfold Supra-normal Knowledge—the realms of
knowledge of the arahants in the time of Lord Buddha.
The arahants from five-hundred years after the parinirvana
of the Buddha up to the time in 1916 when Luang Phaw
Wat Paknam rediscovered the Dhammakaya, were ara-
hants putting an end to their defilements, but they had no
further insight into the workings of the universe. It was
this realm of supramundane knowledge which Luang
Phaw Wat Paknam rediscovered and applied for the
benefit of the world—but at the same time he himself
never claimed himself to be an arhat or to have attained
any of the stages of sainthood known in Buddhism. He
didn’t claim to be a Buddha or a bodhisattva.
The personality of Luang Phaw Wat Paknam continues
to remain close to the hearts of all who practise medita-
tion. His zeal for and commitment to meditation remain
an undying legacy for us all.
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1. from Newell ibid. pp..76, 99, 117, 270
141