Today is the 100th day after the passing away of the king of Thailand: His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Also, at this time, a good friend of the sangha, Yom Ploen Petchkua, is very close to the end of her life. She was diagnosed with five brain tumours a few months ago and I had the chance to go down and see her with Ajahn Pasanno, and a number of monastic and lay friends in December, in her hometown in Songkla, southern Thailand.

Reflecting on these people – the king of Thailand and Yom Ploen – it is said in our Buddhist way of regarding things that these are people who have created a lot of merit, a lot of puñña in their lives. The king of Thailand dedicated himself, for the 70 years that he was on the throne, through living in a skilful way and endeavouring to establish wholesome principles of conduct in the hearts of the Thai people, to help them in genuine, practical and efficient ways: developing water systems, gardening systems, systems of communication and so forth. Yom Ploen has been very involved in supporting our monasteries and helping to publish many Dhamma books. In the last few days I have been conscious of giving away books that she was directly involved in producing books about the funeral of Luang Por Chah and the foundation of Amaravati. Over the years she has been responsible for bringing into being dozens of different Dhamma books.

Although it has been my intention that this book should be, as far as possible, a biography as opposed to a hagiography, I am not sure that I have been completely successful. My love for Luang Por and my belief in his enlightenment inevitably colour the text. What I have not done is suppress any scandalous or embarrassing information out of concern for his good name. Hard as it may be to accept nowadays when there is so much – and often well-founded – cynicism about the integrity of religious figures, Luang Por Chah had absolutely nothing to hide. The only skeleton in a cupboard at Wat Pah Pong was the one hanging on public display in the Dhamma Hall. In fact, that is one of the strongest reasons for my belief that the life of Luang Por Chah is so worthy of study.

All those that remember him have their own Ajahn Chah. This book represents mine. If it includes any mistakes or oversights I accept full responsibility, and ask for your forgiveness.

I am very pleased with George Sharp writing down the history of the English Sangha Trust, the Hampstead Vihara and the time that I spent there. I lived for two years in the Hampstead Vihara, then came Chithurst Monastery and, later, Amaravati.

George has an incredible memory for detail – I’m very impressed because he remembers all the legalities and minutiae that were involved in the selling of the Hampstead Vihara, the purchasing of Chithurst House, acquiring of Hammer Wood and later, in 1984, the purchasing and development of the Amaravati Monastery in Hertfordshire.

He is the important person in this endeavour because when I met him in 1976 I knew very little of the Hampstead Vihara but was encouraged by Tan Ajahn Paññavaddho to contact George Sharp if I ever needed a place to stay while I was in London. I was travelling back to Bangkok – I flew from New York to London and I had to wait three days for a connecting flight to Thailand. During that time George would come to see me every evening and tell me of his intentions.

He was the first layman I met who, on my travels through America and then during my brief sojourn in England, seemed to have some understanding of what was needed to establish a Theravadan Buddhist forest monastery.

In America, I travelled from California to New York and was quite open to possibilities of invitations to come and live, to come and establish this Thai Forest Tradition in the United States. Nothing really developed. Least of all was I expecting anything to happen during the three-day sojourn in London!

I was very impressed by George’s understanding of what was needed, that we weren’t going to be put in an impossible position of just becoming meditation teachers or writing newsletters. His whole emphasis was guided by the wisdom of Ajahn Maha Boowa and Ajahn Paññavaddho regarding the establishment of a forest monastery where the development of a bhikkhu could be made possible within the European setting. That impressed me so much that I encouraged George to come and visit Thailand and to meet Luang Por Chah because I thought that he should at least come and see what our life is like. Living in a city townhouse is different from living in the Thai Forest tradition. But if George came to Wat Pah Pong in Ubon, then he would see for himself: ‘Is this what you really want?’

Excerpt from the Introduction by Luang Por Sumedho