..续本文上一页so called upon to perform traditional rituals and ceremonies. They would be invited to local houses to chant blessings and sprinkle lustral water during marriages, house-warming parties and times of sickness or ill luck. At the death of a villager they would chant the rather abstract and philosophical Matika verses, traditionally believed to be the teachings the Buddha gave to his mother in Tusita heaven following her death.

　　Luang Por spent four years as a dekwat. During that time, he learned to read and write, helped with the sweeping and cleaning of the monastery, served the monks, and gradually absorbed, if not their intellectual nutrition, then at least the ambience and flavour of the basic Buddhist teachings. His duties were not onerous, and there was plenty of time for play with his fellow dekwat, of whom there was a constant supply. It was the custom for rough lads to be sent to the monastery by their weary parents for urgent moral reform; orphans, if no relation could take them, could always find a refuge with the monks. Apart from accepting boys for religious reasons, the monastery was also the local social welfare centre. In the Monk”s Discipline it is laid down that an aspirant must be twenty years of age before he can become a monk but that a boy old enough “to scare crows” can become a novice. Luang Por took the novice “Going Forth” vows in March 1931. He was thirteen and could have driven off a raiding hawk. Luang Por”s sturdy frame and bulging belly together with his resonant voice earned him the nickname Eung, or Bullfrog. Life carried on in almost the same relaxed fashion, although wearing the robe conferred a higher status and increased expectations; at least in front of the laity, a restrained demeanour was de rigour. Luang Por would spend time everyday walking up and down in the shade, memorizing the various Pāli chants: the daily service, meal blessings, auspicious verses chanted at house-warming parties and marriages, and the more sombre funeral chants: Adhuvam jivitam, dhuvam maranam, avassam me maritabbam – Life is uncertain; death is certain; I too will die.

　　He also completed the first of the three levels in the curriculum of monastic studies. It included sections on the Buddha”s life and teachings, the code of Discipline and the history of Buddhism, and provided a sound foundation in the core teachings. At other times, gardening and building projects served to work off teenage steam.

　　During his novice years, Luang Por”s teacher and mentor was a monk called Ajahn Lung. In accordance with the reciprocal relationship laid down in the ancient texts, Ajahn Lung oversaw Luang Por”s studies, and Luang Por in return acted as his personal attendant. Every now and then in the evenings, Ajahn Lung would kindly accompany Luang Por on visits to his family – it would have been forbidden for a novice to go alone – and indeed seemed to enjoy these excursions even more than Luang Por, exuding a confidence and charm among Luang Por”s family that the young novice found a little eccentric. At Ajahn Lung”s instigation, the visits became steadily more frequent and protracted, and sometimes it would be late at night before the two of them walked back to the monastery, accompanied by the barks of the village dogs their footsteps disturbed.

　　One day Ajahn Lung confided in Luang Por that he had decided to disrobe and suggested that his protégé might do likewise. A confused Luang Por agreed. He had

　　been living in the wat for seven years and, at the dangerous and wobbly age of sixteen, a small push was enough. Some days after the joint disrobing, Luang Por”s parents were visited by elder relatives of ex-Ajahn Lung to discuss a marriage proposal. The ardent admirer of Luang Por”s sister Sah, assured of her affections was fre…

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