..续本文上一页ot the sort of food they would eat. It would be far better to make merit and dedicate it to the spirits. If they didn”t accept that, then drive them away with the authority of the Dhamma.

　　So I ordered the people to burn all the ancestral shrines. When some of the villagers began to lose nerve for fear that there would be nothing to protect them in the future, I wrote down the chant for spreading good will, and gave a copy to everyone in the village, guaranteeing that nothing would happen. I”ve since learned that all of the area around the ancestral shrines is now planted with crops, and that the spot in the forest where the spirits were said to be fierce is now a new village.

　　As I stayed there for quite a while, teaching the people in the village, word began to spread. Some people became jealous and tried in various ways to drive me away. One day three of the leading monks in the area were invited to give a sermon debate. I was invited as the fourth. The three monks were: Phra Khru Vacisunthorn, the ecclesiastical head of Muang Saam Sib district; Preceptor Lui, the ecclesiastical head of Amnaad Jaroen district; Ajaan Waw, who had knowledge of Pali. And then there was me. The night before the debate, I told myself, "It”s going to be a knock-down, drag-out battle tomorrow. Whoever takes you on, and however they do it, don”t let yourself be fazed in the least." A lot of people went to hear the debate, but in the end it all passed peacefully without any incident.

　　Still, there were a number of monks and laypeople in the area who, thinking I was nothing but a braggart, kept trying to create trouble and misunderstandings between other monks and me. One day Nai Chai, claiming to represent the householders in Yaang Yo Phaab township, went to the offices of the District Official and denounced me as a vagrant. This simply increased my determination to stay. "I haven”t done anything evil or wrong since coming here. No matter how they come at me, I”m going to stick it out to the very end." The outcome of it all was that the District Education Officer had no authority to drive me out of the village. I told the people that if there was any more of this sort of business, I wouldn”t leave until my name had been cleared.

　　One day the District Official himself came out to check up on some government business, and spent the night in the village. The village headman, a relative of mine, told him about all that had been happening. The District Official”s response was this: "It”s a rare monk who will teach the lay people like this. Let him stay as long as he likes." From that point on, there were no more incidents.

　　* * *

　　After a while, I took leave of my relatives and set out for Yasothon. There I met Ajaan Singh with a following of 80 monks and novices staying in the Yasothon cemetery, the spot where the jail is now standing. Soon afterwards a letter came from Phra Phisanasarakhun, the ecclesiastical head of Khon Kaen province at Wat Srijan (SplendorousMoon Temple), inviting Ajaan Singh to Khon Kaen. So the citizens of Yasothon, headed by Ajaan Rin, Ajaan Daeng and Ajaan Ontaa, rented two buses, and we all set out for Khon Kaen. Ajaan Bot, the first meditation monk I had met, went along as well. The first night we spent in Roi Et; and the second at Ancestor Hill in Maha Sarakham, a spot where the local people said the spirits were fierce. Crowds of people came to listen to Ajaan Singh”s sermons.

　　I began to realize that I wasn”t going to find any peace and quiet in these circumstances, so I took my leave of Ajaan Singh and, accompanied by a novice, went to visit my relatives — Khun MahaWichai, an uncle on my mother”s side of the family — in Nam Phong district. When I arrived there I found a number of families in the area related to me. They were …

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