Heart Warming Environment

From this point on, I would like to tell you my story of all the experiences I can remember from the first time I walked into the a Dhammakaya Temple branch in Azusa, California to visiting the Dhammakaya Temple in Thailand and present day interactions with Dhammakaya monks, staff, and laypeople.

So let us go take a nice trip into the past where I was still a young boy.  It was March 1998 if I remember correctly, the first time my family walked into the Dhammakaya International Meditation Center (DIMC) in Azusa, California.  That year, there was a lot of bad news media in Thailand about this temple, but from our first contact, it was nothing like the media said.  My mother raised us to not believe everything you hear, rather to think about what they say, contemplate and rationalize in your mind, then make a decision.  If while rationalizing this information and it doesn't seem to add up or make sense, then go and find out for yourself.  So that is exactly what my parents did, they decided we should go in and take a look.

The news in Thailand said that only wealthy people would go to this temple, so we dressed up in a fairly nice semi-formal, casual attire (we wanted to look presentable).  As soon as we walked in, we saw all the laypeople wearing humble clean white clothes and a heart warming smile on their faces. We felt like we just came to a family reunion.  Everyone welcomed us and even took time to show us around.  We came in right before lunch so we could offer food to the monks.

We were pleasantly surprised to see children at the temple.  I was eleven years old at the time and having more friends outside of school made the temple that much more appealing to myself and to my family.  Increasingly surprised that they had a short meditation and Dhamma sermon for the kids so we could have a good foundation in meditation and morality.  That day I learned how wonderful it is to be with people who want to do good deeds together.