Well we’re here. We arrived safely early on Sunday morning. Inside the aircraft it hadn’t been too warm, when we got out in the new airport it didn’t feel too warm and outside it didn’t look too inviting either with fog swirling all around. Never mind, we pressed on and hiked our way through to Immigration, Baggage Reclaim and out at Exit 4 where Goong met us and drove us through the fog and into Bangkok and to where we’re staying. By the time we got here the sun was out and it was definitely warming up.

Sunday then proved a pretty leisurely day. We didn’t go anywhere but there were a few phone calls and in the afternoon Ant and Mark came to see us, Mark with a present of small temple bell from Korea. Later on plans for the rest of our stay were discussed and laid. Then in the midst of his wedding preparations, Pie phoned.

On Monday morning it was an early meal before Ant and Mark appeared with a mini coach and more ex Warwick students to take us off on a trip to Ayuthia. There we had a gently strenuous time wandering round the ruins and the beautiful gardens of Ban Pa In Palace.

We’d not long got back when Tahn Maha Dhammabhojo, who used to stay with me some years ago at Warwick, arrived to see me. He’s a Chao Khun now and has his own temple. He came with two other monks, one of whom would like to come to Warwick. Then we’d not been talking more than a few minutes when another old friend, Sathienpong Wannapok, made his entrance. We chatted until quite late and took photos and all the rest of it.

Now it’s already the early hours of Tuesday and soon Pie’s wedding ceremonies will begin. We are to go over to be there for our meal at eight. Then in the afternoon we take a flight to Ubon. After that while I’m at Wat Pa Nanachat I’m not sure how easy it will be to update this blog but I’ll try.

I did my best to take it as close to the wire as I dared but yesterday just before I went off for an evening prison visit I took the decision to leave for Thailand on Saturday. So that’s it, all being well, early on Sunday morning, January 13th, we should be landing at Suvarnabhumi International Airport not far from Bangkok. We should be back early on January 29th.

For anyone in Thailand who wants to reach me while we are away my mobile number in Thailand is 08-3383-0089.

Hopefully I’ll be updating this blog while I’m away.

เบอร์โทรศัพท์ติดต่อในประเทศไทย: 08-3383-0089

As I stood waiting to speak in Trafalgar Square at the meeting for Burma, I was for a moment transported back to rehearsals at the Old Vic forty years ago, in the days when it was home to the National Theatre. We were rehearsing a Sunday night showing of ‘In His Own Write’ and I was Me. Victor Spinetti of the Beatles films was directing. As I spoke John Lennon’s verse staring into the blackness of an empty auditorium, now and then somewhere out there a lighter would flicker to reveal Victor’s smiling and lively face encouraging me to talk to him. On Saturday as I stood in the chill of a January afternoon in Trafalgar Square I looked up and and amongst the gathering audience saw a hand waving and then there under a cap and behind a beard, older now but still as lively and encouraging, Victor’s smile and wild, friendly eyes.

When it was over we went out of the cold and into the warmth of his flat on the edge of China Town for tea and the offer of a hot shower to warm up. I didn’t bother with the latter but the Jasmine tea in a big generous cup was very welcome and the gossip and reminiscing was fun.

I’ve still got the signed copy of In His Own Write that John gave me.

Yesterday we went to London to join a silent march to Trafalgar Square to mark the sixtieth anniversary of Burma’s independence from Britain and to offer our support for the monks and people of Burma who live now under one of the world’s most oppressive and brutal military regimes.

Here are two videos of my talk.

We’ve just spent a very peaceful and meditative evening leading up to the stroke of midnight when we saw the New Year in chanting the Parittas as those present each lit a stick of incense to symbolise letting go of the old and determining to do better in the future.

We had our usual Monday evening sitting with a little talk from me that focussed on letting go, not just of the past but the future as well. Just as the revolving wheel hits the ground always at one place only, so really our lives are lived just in the present even if our minds don’t usually acknowledge that. Afterwards we had tea and were joined by the little group who are in retreat at Bhavana Dhamma. I read to them a few passages about some of the great forest monks of the past, passages that focussed particularly on overcoming fear. The last few words I read were one monk’s appraisal of what threatened Thailand at the time. Instead of mentioning insurgency as everyone present expected he pointed to kilesa, defilement, greed and anger and all the rest, as the greatest threat. And so it is. It’s the enemy within that we ought to be most careful of. My hope for the New Year is that more of us may make a better job of facing that enemy.

Earlier in the day we had a visit from Karen who has not long returned from Burma, where she saw something of the terrible events that gripped that sad and beautiful land a few weeks ago. She described arriving somewhere soon after a monk had been tied to a lamppost and beaten to death. What can you say! Arrests and brutality are common and the people live in fear. What can you say, what can you do but determine to hold fast to what is good.

A Boxing Day present for Larry was a new home kindly crafted by our new samanera.

Here’s Larry emerging and greeting a new day after his first night in his palace.

Today is the thirty-sixth anniversary of my ordination as a samanera (novice) in Section 5 of Wat Mahadhatu in the heart of Bangkok. Back then on Boxing Day in 1971, I had been in Thailand just over three weeks staying in Section 6 but practising meditation under the instruction of Ven. Chao Khun Dhep Siddhimuni, the Head of Section 5, who became my Uphajjaya or Preceptor.
Before it’s too late I’ve rescued a few old photos of the ordination and posted them here.
The monk with me who looked after me was Phra Maha Raundeg Simuni. I had known him in England at Wat Buddhapadipa and it was he who had first told me of Ajahn Chah. Phra Maha Simuni was from a large wat in the middle of the city of Ubon called Wat Tung See Muang. On January 1st, 1972, Phra Maha Simuni took me to Ubon and eventually introduced me to Ajahn Chah. But before I could go and stay at Wat Pah Pong I had to go with Phra Maha Simuni to a remote village called Ban Pai Yai which he wanted to study and include in his thesis for an MA in Anthropology that he was doing at Durham. My job was supposed to be to check his English but I ended up taking notes and doing some writing for him. I’m very grateful for that experience because it introduced me to village life in the North East of Thailand and gave me a little insight into the lives of the wonderful people of that region that I might otherwise never have had. I’ve never been back to Ban Pai Yai but one day I will.

The third week in November each year has become known as ‘Prisons Week’. Prisons Week was established to pray for and to raise awareness of the needs of prisoners and their families, victims of crime, prison staff and all those who care. This year, some of us were keen that Prisons Week should also be marked by a multi-Faith event. Just as the chaplaincy teams in prisons are exploring a more multi-Faith approach to pastoral care, so it was felt that Prisons Week could demonstrate different Faiths and Denominations coming together to reflect and to commit to a common purpose.
On this Wednesday evening of Prisons Week a group of us gathered in the cavernous old Victorian chapel at Wormwood Scrubs. It was a dark and squally evening and several of our visitors were soaked as they were escorted in from the main gate and others on their way there had to sit for ages in the intense traffic generated by the vital England match at Wembley. In the event it wasn’t the turnout we’d hoped for. No prisoners were able to be present. But amongst my guests was the Head of the London Buddhist Vihara, a Thai monk from the Buddhapadipa Temple who teaches meditation in Brixton Prison, three Burmese monks from Tisarana Vihara, the Venerable Abbess of the London Fo Guang Temple, Venerable Manapo and Sister Khema from the Forest Hermitage, Lord Avebury, two new Buddhist prison chaplains and Christopher Fettes who many years ago taught me at Drama School.
The evening was introduced by Rev. Monsignor Malachy Keegan, then six of us representing the main religions read and chanted from our scriptures – assisted by Tahn Manapo I chanted part of the Metta Sutta and then read an English translation, an address from me followed and the event ended with a joint act of commitment.
The theme of my address was the practice of Metta, Loving-Kindness, and I drew on the extraordinary recent example of the monks in Burma and their exemplary courage. I can’t remember all I said now but I quoted the Buddha’s advice to not perpetuate anger and hatred by meeting it with more of the same and the importance, even in extreme circumstances, of maintaining a mind of Loving-Kindness. I remember saying that not being able to agree with the views and opinions of others should not mean that we can’t be friends and to imagine what a difference it would make if we were able to extend this attitude of Loving-Kindness and friendship beyond the walls of Wormwood Scrubs Prison and throughout the world.
The joint act of commitment that we read was thus:
We come from many different Faith traditions.
Together we care for all those people held in our prisons.
We commit ourselves afresh, as friends and colleagues, to provide opportunities for all to grow and develop into men and women of integrity, wise and truthful, free from crime, from the fear of crime and from anxiety.
We are united in our desire to work for the common good, and to continue to work in trust, in peace and in harmony, in a spirit of friendship and goodwill, confident that it will bear fruit in the lives of many.

Many thanks to Father Malachy for organising the evening, to Helen and Wormwood Scrubs for hosting it and to everyone who came.

Afterwards a few of our Buddhist contingent repaired to a nearby Thai restaurant for good conversation and soup for those who could and green tea and coca cola for the rest.

As a boy at grammar school I remember at exam time being told very bluntly to read the questions. The other day someone told me that they’d once read of an exam where a group of students were assembled and at the very top of their paper it said that they should read through the whole exam paper before answering anything. As usual once they’d been told to begin it was heads down and utter silence except for the occasional rustle of paper, then rapidly the pens began scratching away. After about five minutes one student looked up from reading the last page of the paper, looked around, hesitated for a few minutes, looked again at his paper, looked around once more, then back at the paper and then carefully folded it, got up handed it in and left. Everyone else continued writing away until the time was up. Later, when the results came out the only one who passed was the lad who left after five minutes. Why? At the bottom of the last page of the exam paper it said, ‘Don’t answer any of these questions!’
There have been times when I’ve thought of passing that story on to a certain outfit that I have some dealings with.
Some of you who have been to stay at Bhavana Dhamma or thought of coming will have looked at our booking form and seen where it quotes Ajahn Chah who once said that the only thing worth reading was the mind and then it goes on to say that while at Bhavana Dhamma you shouldn’t read anything else. We’ve heard that at another place it’s being said that here you can only read one book, ‘The Mind’ by Ajahn Chah!

We had a meeting today at the London Buddhist Vihara of the Theravada Buddhist Sangha in the UK (TBSUK).

It was a small meeting with only six temples represented but we had a very good discussion and spent some time drafting the objects of our association. We spoke about our concerns about the misuse of the Buddha Image in marketing and advertising and we considered a statement on the terrible events in Burma.
Afterwards I was pleased to see Hui and Nyomee, as well as Jayamati of the Western Buddhist Order. Pie kindly drove me.