Whenever I see small roads or tracks I get the urge to explore. Not knowing where I am going means I can't really get lost. Eventually I find my way to somewhere I recognise, or my innate sense of direction leads me home. It was a bit like this in the little village of Ban Nong Ka where I had gone looking for drinking water. Looking around the wat, we found it deserted until an old black toyota with blacked out windows drove in and parked under the trees. A monk got out, and I felt sure he got out of the driver's side. He walked out of the wat compound and I wondered whether the driver was going to wait for him, but we stayed in the compound for some time and there was no further movement by or in the car. Later, after we had met the monk in the nearby forest, I told Pensri that I was fairly sure he had been driving the car. She told me that he had, and she said she had asked him whether it was wrong for a monk to drive a car. Apparently he grinned and said, "Yes, it is a bit" and then went on to excuse himself by saying that he had needed to fetch something from another temple and there had been no lay person around to drive him. Obviously, when the Buddha laid down the 227 'rules' that monks live by there were no such things as cars. But by Thai law, or perhaps by Thai Sangha rules, monks are not allowed to drive cars, presumably so that there is no possibility of their being involved in an accident or a dispute.
Anyway, we found this entrance to the forest and couldn't resisit following the path:
Inside the forest we found a certain amount of activity, although as the world over, there were as many people sitting or standing around watching or giving advice as there were people actually doing anything:
The 'driving' monk was happy to talk but was not seen to do any work. Perhaps his driving skills (or at least his willingness to drive) absolved him from further activity. His tatooos were also very impressive and doubtless provided some protection from road traffic accidents.
This monk explained that they were preparing the area for a 10-day retreat for monks and mae chee. During this time the monks would remain in the forest, confessing to each other any minor faults they might have committed during the rainy season retreat, practising walking and sitting meditation, and teaching each other and interested lay people during the afternoon. Between 60 - 70 monks and about 30 mae chee were expected and they would all be fed on a rota by local villagers.
This was two days before the retreat was due to start and there still seemed quite a lot of preparations to be completed. But this small forest did seem like an ideal place for monks to retreat a little further from the everyday world.
I didn't manage to get to Ban Nong Ka during the retreat, but every morning at about 4 am I could hear the monks there chanting. And again at 6 pm each evening. Ban Nong Ka is about 8 kms away as the crow flies -- surprising how far sound (amplified) carries when there are no other sounds to provide distraction. Whenever I heard the chanting I wondered if the monk we had met had confessed his little fault.
These two posts about the retreat in Phana last year may also interest you:
Preparing for retreat in Don Chao Poo Forest
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