Ven. Acariya Mun - Spiritual Biography + photos

I wish to apologize to the reader if this seems an exaggera-
tion. I was somewhat carried away by a sense of pride I felt con-
cerning the offerings of so many generous people. I never imag-
ined that we Thai people could be so generous. But witnessing
this wonderful display of munificence personally, I have contin-
ued to be amazed by it ever since. Self-sacrifice and bounteous
generosity are hallmarks of the Thai people. From a global per-
spective, Thailand is but a small country, yet our compassion-
ate tendency to engage in spontaneous acts of charitable giving
is second to none. It is a tradition that is entirely appropriate for
a country like ours with a Buddhist heritage that teaches us to
have compassion for one another. On the whole, we Thais have
always been a nation of warm, big-hearted people who tend to
shun narrow-minded, stingy attitudes.
Nowhere was this more apparent than at Ãcariya Mun’s
funeral, where faithful donors offered an abundance of items for
general consumption. The bounty was truly extraordinary. The
sizes of the enormous pots of rice and stew prepared each day
were almost frightening. These pots were so big and heavy that
several people were required to carry them to the pavilions where
the monks gathered to eat. Due to the unusually large number of
monks, many different eating places were set up to accommodate
them. Most of them ate in large groups – thirty to forty monks
here, fifty to sixty monks there – at locations set aside for that pur-
pose within the grounds. Smaller groups of nine to ten monks ate
together in the monks’ living quarters. The vast majority of them
were kammaååhãna monks who ate directly from their alms bowls,
so large quantities of dishes and eating utensils were unnecessary,
making it much easier to serve so many. Sets of dishes were pro-