“I’ll have to ask my master to find out” … one of the monks tells me, when he speaks about his research. He’s studying for a degree in political science and seems to have a lot of work to do.
“Do you know my master?” he asks me. “No”, I reply, “how could I know him?”
“It’s Master Google!” he tells me with a big grin in his face and we both laugh.
The other day, I was sitting in the “Monk chat” area with about 15 monks, plus the dogs that live on temple grounds. People who don’t want their dogs anymore or can’t take care of them bring them to the temple, because they know that the monks will take care.
So whenever I sit with the monks, there are some very old and sick looking dogs walking around us and even though I love dogs, these scare me a bit, just because they look like a great source of numerous undesirable diseases.
All of a sudden, my friend Champa has a weird look on his face. He looks down to my feet. “What?” I get a little uncomfortable. “Oh nothing”, he replies but he still looks funny. So I take a look down at my feet, to check what’s wrong and then I spot it. A big pile of dog’s droppings. Now, I’m not a person to freak out at this, I’ve picked up our dog’s droppings numerous times. So I only move my feet a little in order to avoid any contact with the “material”.
Champa asks me for a piece of paper, as he has nothing to pick the stuff up with. I take out my notepad and look for a blank page to tear out. Before I can do it they all break out in big laughter. Champa picks up the “droppings” with his hand. It’s made of plastic. They laugh so hard they can barely talk, but judging from a lot of Thai flying around me, they find it hilarious. Who said monks have to be serious?
“We don’t want to look serious” another of my friends tells me. “Then people would be afraid to talk to us, but we have to talk to them, we have to teach them about Buddhism and morality”. So, when they appear more approachable, it’s easier for them to carry out one of their duties. I just wish, they’d stop pulling my leg!
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