..续本文上一页phasi, so I decided to return to Thailand in order to contact the Thai government and Sangha and inform them of the proposal on my own.

　　In December, 1950, I took a plane from Rangoon to Bangkok — the monk who had gone with me to India had already returned a good many days before. In Bangkok I stayed with Somdet Phra Mahawirawong (Uan) at Wat Boromnivasa. I informed the Somdet of the plans to build a temple in Rangoon. He thought the matter over several days, and just as he was about to give me permission to fly back to Burma, I ran into interference. A number of monks, having heard the news that a temple was going to be built in Rangoon, started getting into the act, saying that Ajaan Lee wouldn”t be able to succeed without them. They had received letters to that effect from Rangoon, they said. How they were able to know that, I have no idea. These monks were all titled, high-ranking ecclesiastical officials right here in Bangkok.

　　When I learned this, I dropped the whole matter and was no longer involved. I sent a letter to the Thai embassy in Burma, asking to withdraw from the proposal. That finished it off. To this day I have yet to see anyone build the temple.

　　This being the way things were, I left Wat Boromnivasa and returned to visit my supporters in Chanthaburi. During this period there were all sorts of people, jealous and angry with me, who tried to smear my name in every conceivable way, but I”d rather not name their names because I believe they helped me by making me more and more determined.

　　* * *

　　With the approach of the rainy season I left Chanthaburi to return to Wat Boromnivasa, and then went to teach meditation to the lay people at Wat Saneha, Nakhorn Pathom province. From there I went to stay at Wat Prachumnari, Ratchaburi province, at the request of Chao Jawm Sapwattana, head of the temple committee. I stayed at this temple several days, and during that time there were a lot of very strange events.

　　One morning a woman of about 20 came and sat in front of the sermon seat. A moment later she went into convulsions. So I made some lustral water and sprinkled her with it. I started questioning her and learned that there was a spirit of a man who had died a violent death dwelling in the area, and that it would possess people, causing them to be covered with hives, each swelling about the size of your thumb. When I learned this, I had no medicine to give her, but I was chewing betel nut, so I took the chewed-up remains, threw them down next to her and had her eat them. The swellings disappeared. This happened altogether three different times, and there were a good number of witnesses each time.

　　Several days later, just as I was getting ready to leave, a woman named Nang Samawn, a niece of Nang Ngek in Bangkok, came to see me. She had once been ordained as a nun, but had later returned to lay life and married a former justice of the peace in Ratchaburi. She was about 40, and had a son aged 15. She held me in great esteem: Whenever I came to the Bangkok area she would always come to seek me out. That day, at about five in the evening, she came with an offering of flowers, candles and incense, so I asked her, "What can I do for you, Mother Samawn

　　"

　　She answered, "I”ve come to ask you for a child."

　　As soon as I heard this, I started feeling uneasy, because there were only a few people present, and on top of that she was speaking in a whisper. So I said out loud, "Wait until more people come." I was thinking of the future — if she really did give birth to another child, I”d be in a spot. So I wanted the whole affair to be out in the open to make sure that everyone knew the facts of the case.

　　That evening, a little after 7 p.m., about 100 people came and congregated in the main meeting hall. Nang Samawn sat right n…

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