Hi, thankyou for your kind welcome,..... ' Nothing like a monk........ (with a English accent)..... reading MCTB.
How I became a monk - and why. I'll try.
During my student years, studying drawing, illustration Graphic Design and animation, I became very interested in 360 degree perspective, and meditating on a sphere of light.That was 1983-84 in Liverpool. I resisted the written essays and the resulting friction led to me leaving the course. This meditating had much greater fascination and affinity for me. It turned about to be white /light kasina, and the resulting spheres of boundless space etc. I decided to travel to Asia. I flew to Philippines. After deciding to settle there I went to Australia to earn more money for this lifestyle and used the visualisation capacity resulting from the meditation to illustrate childrens' books and newspaper illustration. I also was soul-mate searching and set off to return to Philippines via Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.. maybe Hong Kong. My chosen soul-mate arrived in Singapore from UK. By the time we had got to Thailand we were not happy and there was friction arising. In Chiang Mai the friction led to me wondering about meditation courses which were locally available at Wat Ram Poeng in a 26 day meditation course. An adaption of intensive Mahas Sayadaw technique. The opportunity to be absorbed in a temple environment and dedicating all time to meditation restored my happiness. I asked if I could assist the Westerners meditation section of the temple, and they suggested I ordain. That led to three years 1986-1989 involved in the teacher's assistant role there. I then found myself quite burnt out and stressed. I left the order and returned to lay life and UK, and Europe. After about twenty years of colourful life in 2009 I returned to the temple life. I flew to Thailand and explained that I wished to explore many other teachers, temples and cultures to see and compare them. In Malaysia I met the late MahaThera Punnaji who suggested I visit Sri Lanka and at least took Samanera ordination. So that was 2010 March. Which explains roughly how and why I became a monk and later became a Samanera.
Most of these anecdotal accounts would be better done in an interview style as many adventures and quirky events also happened and then just filmed or audio recorded I think. But it gives a rough scaffold of some of the events. Thanks for asking.
There was another question i just saw 'Can you tell us a little about yourself?'... ha... i usually find it hard to tell as and little about myself... when i get going it usually goes on for quite a lot about myself. Not in ego way, just a lot happened, and anecdotes say a lot about life. I'll try to share what I can as we go along. With loving kindness, friendly wishes and harmless wishes for upholding the great Dhamma.
P.S - Is there a way you can actually 'make friends' with people on the site? i didn't see a way yet. Any tips. I see the 'Online Friends' button on the bottom of the screen.
