Point 5
Transforming a Rice Field into a Temple
Ground Breaking Ceremony on Magha Puja Day February 20, 1970
“Let's go meditate first. I will find the money for you.”
As the Dhammaprasit House became consistently packed beyond capacity as more people came to meditate and practice the Dhamma, Khun Yai recognized the need to build a new temple to accommodate the growing number of students. Thus, she sent a group of devotees to discuss with the owner of a 20-acre piece of land the group was interested in buying. Moved with faith after hearing of the team’s intentions, the owner decided to donate an even larger plot of land than the team asked for. On that day, the 77-acre expanse of barren rice field located in Khlong Luang District, Pathum Thani Province became the initial piece of land dedicated for the future temple.
Before starting the construction, Khun Yai called a meeting with all her disciples saying:
“Together, we will build a temple, and it will be a large temple. With this opportunity, we must do our best to succeed. Conflicting ideas are inevitable, so ask yourself: are you capable of managing your anger and avoiding serious arguments over conflicting ideas? If not, please do not move forward with us. If, however, you think you can manage your anger and won’t allow arguments or conflicting ideas to divide us, then please move forward and sit next to me.”
A groundbreaking ceremony was performed to mark the establishment of the temple on Magha Puja Day (full-moon day of the third lunar month) which fell on February 20, 1970 that year. Luang Por Dhammajayo was in charge of the construction while Khun Yai provided various kinds of support such as encouragement and financial support to the team. The initial fund to start building the temple on their empty plot of land was only 3,200 baht (the modern equivalent of $100 USD).
While digging the canals, the team recognized that they lacked the money to cover labor costs scheduled for the following day. Luang Por Dattajeevo was quite worried about the situation, but Khun Yai said, “Let’s go meditate first. I will find the money for you.”
That day, Khun Yai led an extra-long meditation session. After the session ended, Luang Por Dattajeevo said, “If there is no money to pay the cost of digging tomorrow, we will have problems.” Khun Yai then confirmed that she had seen the money arriving in her meditation. Not knowing what to do next, Luang Por Dattajeevo simply made an appointment to come get the money the next day and said goodbye to Khun Yai. When he opened the door of the meditation room, he found a man sitting on the front steps. The man said that his father had instructed him to donate 30,000 baht (equivalent to modern day $1,000 USD) to the group before he passed away. He shared that he had been waiting outside for a while as everyone was meditating in the room. Khun Yai’s meditative insight thus proved to be entirely accurate as the money she had wished for and seen in her meditation arrived accordingly.