(Part 2 of 3 Sections)

The second day we were brought to Ji Xiang Dao, an island that was meant for women to cultivate their mind. It is quite a big island, with many grand and "zhuang yan" (adorned) halls, buildings, and nice, quiet, serene environment. An eight preceptor (from England ) explained to us the history of the founder of the island – Padme (meaning Dharma mother).

She was born to a rich family and blessed with a loving husband and three adorable sons. She had always wanted to cultivate herself in the Dharma path, but her husband couldn't leave her. She cultivated by herself, always going to the cemetery for Dharma practice, and had made up her mind to devote herself in the Buddha Dharma.

She pleaded with her husband for seven years before he finally decided to let her go. At that time, the youngest son was only four years old. She had done this because she realized that life is impermanent. She had to do things that could benefit more people than her family only. (This is very much like the Buddha himself, right?)

After getting permission from her husband, Padme changed to white attire, took a mosquito net and a mat, and left her family, going out all alone. She practiced very hard, slept only two hours a day, and encountered a great achievement. She was then offered this island, which was like a deserted forest at that time. She managed to change the entire forest into a rain forest; a very green and verdant forest. It was amazing; being a woman who had not done any hard work before, she still managed to do the work all by herself at the beginning. Slowly, more and more people were touched by her efforts, and came to help her. More and more people followed her path, leading a very spiritual life, eating only one meal a day, and worked all day till night. She stressed a lot on making aspiration, offering all efforts to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. I really can't imagine how a woman like her could set up such a good environment for the Dharma practitioners.

Her faith towards the Triple Gems was really touching; she kept saying everything she did was with the blessing of the Triple Gems, and for the sake of all beings who would like to cultivate themselves in the Dharma. This is really another Bodhisattva in the making.

We were fortunate to have the chance to meet her that evening. There was no prior arrangement; just some among us had made a wish in their hearts to see her. Given this rare opportunity, I asked her what made her so devoted to the Triple Gems. She replied that these were all her past lives' effort! If she had not reached that level of enlightenment, I believe she wouldn't have said such a thing.

That night we slept with a dead body used for cultivating Bu Jing Guan (contemplation of the impermanence of the human body). However, we didn't realize we were sleeping in the vicinity of a corpse until the next morning!

On the third day, we were in Ji Xiang Dao for the morning, before going back to Bangkok . By the time we reached Bangkok , it was evening. After dinner, we joined them in their Asoke Day Anniversary celebration at their headquarters in Santi Asoke. There we saw Phra Bodhirak, speaking on stage, with other members of the Sangha surrounding him, and thousands of devotees listening to the talk.

The hall was not big and the audience was so huge that they sat everywhere, even at the five-foot way of houses and shops. The next morning we attended another talk given by Phra Bodhirak at 3.30am . Even at this early hour, there were thousands of devotees sitting quietly, listening to the talk!

After the talk Ven. Bodhirak and other Sangha members went round for alms. The people kneeled along the street and offered food to the Sangha. Here in Asoke society, the monks and nuns only take vegetarian food. No meat and no money were accepted. The Sangha would tell the people that they had gained merits by their alms offering, and since the Sangha didn't take meat or money, the devotees had to offer the meat or money to others. What a skillful way to teach the devotees!

In the Santi Asoke of Bangkok , they don't plant. Instead, they do packing and processing jobs. Besides that, they do business on organic products and vegetarian food. We bought a lot of herbs, which were quite cheap. In the Asoke community, the most they earned was 15% of the cost. Some of the products even listed the cost price together with the selling price, so that we knew how much was earned. There was no cheating and no over priced goods. They believed that if they sold the products at too high a price, they would accumulate bad karma. If they were able to give away things, they would acquire good karma. Hence, the goods were sold cheaply. According to them, their customers chose to buy from them because of their high moral and all the products were of good quality. They observed their precepts; therefore there couldn't be any cheating or lying. I experienced this similar sense of honesty and integrity in Asoke villages. There was no worry about theft. Doors need not be locked and it was safe to leave your personal belongings anywhere. You could go away with the knowledge that they would still be there later when you collect them. There was no fear of any crime being committed, because everyone there observed at least the five precepts.

The two days we were at Bangkok , they had their Asoke Day Anniversary celebration. We had the chance to eat lots of different varieties of vegetarian food, all free of charge. They had stalls similar to those of the Than Hsiang Temple's Vegetarian Food Fair, but with no charges. You could eat anything you want, and as much as you could. We ate until we felt like bursting! They even had free ice cream.

That afternoon, we had another rare opportunity to meet Ven. Bodhirak face to face. He looked very fierce at first and we didn't dare say anything until Ven. Jin Xiang cracked a joke. After that we asked a lot of questions and benefited a lot from Ven. Bodhirak's answers. (We had recorded the proceedings and will send to Bro. Ah Jin later to produce into VCDs.) To me, he is another Bodhisattva. No wonder the Santi Asoke people admired him so much.

After dinner, we board the 9.00pm bus and went all the way to the northeastern part of Thailand , to visit another two Asoke villages there - Sisa Asoke and Ratchatani Asoke.

to be continued in the next issue.....