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"By listening to ten people's talk is not so clear as one ex- periences something oneself" No matter how modern technology is developed, this old Thai saying is always true. If is generally acceptable. And it also re- minds me of a friend from Chicago. Nearly twenty years ago, my American friend, who came to teach English in a university in Bangkok as a Peace Corps Volunteer, fell out of a crowded bus while it was turning down an intersection one morning. Fortunately, กันยายน ๒๔๓๑ she did not seriously hurt, she had only some grazes. She wrote to her parents in Chicago about the accident. Really, she told me that they could not imagine how she fell out of the bus, it scemed unbelievable for them. This was because there had never been such ac- cident in the U.S.A. However, several months later, her parents came to visit her on their way to tour South East Asia. As soon as they saw the Bang- kok buses (nearly twenty years ago) they au- tomatically visualized how their daughter had the accident. With regard to this happening, it should be easily understandable why the educational idea of "Learning by Doing" has been po- pular all over the world. Consequently, whenever a sage needs correct information he has to find it out himself, not to sit idly collecting the information only from books, magazines, or rumour around. Owen McCloid, a smart American stu- dent from King's College, England, has realized the idea mentioned. As a student of religions, he, therefore, came to Thailand to study Bud- dhism. The Venerable Met- tänando Bhikkhu is so encouraging. When Owen was asked why he chose to come to Wat Phra Dhammakaya, he said, "Well, firstly, the main reason, my Bud- dhism professor first recommended me to see Luang Pee Metta (The Venerable Mettänan- do Bhikkhu) in Oxford. And so on my first contact I felt Luang Phi Mettä was so en- couraging. I naturally took the option. But there were other reasons that helped me to make the decision to come to Wat Phra Dham- Kalyanamitra.org กัลยาณมิตร ๓๗