Famous Thai Monks; Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta (มั่น ภูริทตฺโต)

Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta (มั่น ภูริทตฺโต) who is more commonly referred to as Ajahn Mun or Luang Por Mun (Luang Por means respected father in Thai while Ajahn means teacher) is one of the most famous monks in Thailand. He has been dead well over half a century, but is still much respected locally and around the world. He is known as the teacher of monks like Ajahn Chah; another Thai monk who did so much to bring Thai Buddhism to the west.

Ajahn Mun is most famous for being one of the founders of the Thai forest tradition. This was a group of wandering monks who believed that the difficulties found through living alone in the Thai jungles could be enough to help seekers find enlightenment. This thudong practice involved many hardships and depravations, and the monks needed to face many of their own fears on a daily basis; fear of wild tigers, other animals, hunger, and loneliness. Many of these monks are believed to have lost their life through the practice. The people of Thailand have traditionally been fearful of ghosts and these wandering monks would combat this fear by sleeping alone in places where the dead were kept awaiting cremation. This willingness to face death won the wandering monks a lot of praise from villagers in rural Thailand.

Ajahn Mun is believed to have first begun meditating at the age of 6 when he was put under the care of the village maw pii (spirit doctor). He grew up in Northeast Thailand in Ubon Ratchathani. He became a novice monk at the age of sixteen and later fully ordained in 1893 at the age of 22. Ajahn Mun was always attracted to the meditation aspect of Buddhist training and felt convinced that it was this and not reading the texts which would lead to liberation. Ajahn Mun first began wandering with Ajahn Sao; one of his meditation teachers. He soon developed a real enthusiasm for the depravations that this wandering entailed and decided to devote his life to this thudong practice.

Ajahn Mun followed the ascetic practices of the wandering monk for the rest of his life. He wandered all over Thailand and into Burma an Laos. He gained many followers and taught hundreds of monks who were to go on to become meditation masters. He wandered through the Thai forests right up until his last years, but as his health failed he spent his final days in a Thai monastery surrounded by his many followers.

One of the most famous accounts of Ajahn Mun's life was written by Ajahn Maha Bowa. In this book, "A Heart Released', he talks a lot about Ajahn Mun's supernatural abilities; how he was able to visit devas and chat with ghosts. Some of these accounts can sound a bit over-the-top, but it was traditional to ascribe these type of attainments to respected monks in those days, and we are too far away from that time to ever discover the truth in these stories.

Sources

Tiyavanich. Kamala - The Buddha in the Jungle (2003) - Silkworm Books: Thailand

Kornfield. Jack, - Living Buddhist Masters - (1977) Buddhist Publication Society: Sri Lanka