# Coming to stay at Wat Nong Pah Pong

- Teacher: Ajahn Chah
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/chah-coming-to-wat-nong-pah-pong
- Themes: gratitude, courage, monastic life, illness
- Life situations: hard times, repaying a mother, founding a forest monastery, illness

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

Invited by his mother, Ajahn Chah settles in the forest his father once spoke of, endures fever and hardship with a few monks, and gives them strength by promising to cremate them himself if they die.

## The story, retold in our own words (a paraphrase, not Ajahn Chah's words)

_Retold in our own words from Ajahn Chah's talk “Wholehearted Training”, in The Teachings of Ajahn Chah (2007 web edition), pp. 617–619._

Ajahn Chah came to stay at Wat Nong Pah Pong at his mother's invitation, wanting a way to repay her kindness. The place already had a hold on him. As a child he had heard his father tell of Ajahn Sao staying there: his father, who was never ordained, had gone to hear the Dhamma from him and had been struck to see a monk eat everything from one almsbowl — rice, curry, sweets and fish together. The memory stayed with the boy. When he later went off to practice, he always kept a special feeling for this forest, and when the time came to return to the area, he came to stay. He invited a high-ranking monk from Piboon, who said it was not his place and left; another ajahn stayed a while and also left; Ajahn Chah remained. In those days the forest was remote and dense, fruit rotted on the ground, and people were afraid to enter. He stayed a couple of years before the first monk disciples followed. They lived simply, all nearly dying of malaria, without going to a hospital, boiling bitter borapet as their only hot drink. One night about nine o'clock a monk extremely ill with fever came out of the forest, afraid to die alone. Ajahn Chah told him that was no solution — they should find someone who wasn't ill to watch the one who was — and told sick monks not to be afraid: if they died, he would cremate them right there in the monastery. Speaking like that, he says, gave them strength of mind.

## Teaching point

In rough conditions, a calm, steady word can give others strength of mind.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Chah's talk)

Great places often begin with hardship and a few frightened people. Ajahn Chah's half-joking promise, that he would cremate the sick monks himself, took the edge off their fear. In hard times, your steadiness can be a gift. A calm, kind word can give someone else the strength to carry on.

_Reflection written by Being Mindful Stories with AI help, in the spirit of the talk. These are not Ajahn Chah's own words._

## Source

- Talk "Wholehearted Training", in The Teachings of Ajahn Chah (2007 web edition), pp. 617–619 — https://www.ajahnchah.org/book/Wholehearted_Training.php

_The book is © The Sangha, Wat Nong Pah Pong, offered for free distribution; read the talk free at its source link. No book text is reproduced here._