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KANLAYANAMIT December 1989 DHARMA SUSTAINS THOSE WHO PRACTICE DHARMA PHRA KRU VINAITORN VIRASAK KITTIVARO LOD ABBOT WAT KHAOTAKIAB, HUAH N.PRACHUABKIRIKAN,THAILAND. ONE day, as I was walking on my way from Bangkok to Petchburi Province, as a form of making merit, I saw a nun. She was about 70 years old, and her name was Tanome. She approached me with food in her basket and wanted to offer it, so I gave her a very big smile. After eating the food and giving her a blessing. I asked her how long she had been a nun. She told me she had become a nun when she was 20. I smiled at her, and we talked a lot. By way of teasing, I asked her if she had become a nun because of a bro- ken heart, or what? Why did she have to become a nun--her face was so beautiful,she must have good- looking way back 50 years ago. Smiling, she looked at me and said, "Do you have more time to listen to my story?" "Yes, I would love to hear it," I said. She began by telling me that she came from a middle-class family. Her father had died when she was only six years old, and she lived with her mother. The mother was a kind woman, who loved to offer foodto the monks every morning. Tanome, this nun, hated monks then, and for no reason. She never came out with her mother to offer food to them. ๖๔ ก ล ย า ณ มิตร sanamura org