LIFE STORY OF VENERABLE ACHARN TIPPAKORN SUKHITO

Venerable Acharn Tippakorn Sukhito was born on the 5th of January, 1962, in Bangkok. His mother’s name is Sai Sanom; his father’s name is Sawath Bubpar.

His mother gave birth to three daughters, and still wished very much to have a son. One day she went to the main chapel of Wat Phra Kaew in Bankok. She prayed to the famous Emerald Buddha, Phra Kaew, and asked for a son. Soon after she became pregnant and gave birth to a boy.

Acharn Tippakorn studied market economy in buisness school. He played the guitar very well and was one of the guitarists and the lead singer in a rock band. In 1982 he finished his studies and wanted to become a soldier. He entered the army and was sent to the Cambodian border, where there was a war. He received the Medal of Honor for his activities there. After one year he left the army with a honarable discharge, and started working for his sister.

It is a tradition in Thailand that a young man should ordain as a monk once in his lifetime to repay his parents’ kindness. That was why Acharn Tippakorn became a monk in 1989. He ordained at Wat Sanghathan, Nonthaburi, where the Venerable Phra Acharn Sanong Katapunyo was to be his teacher. He immediately sent him to Wat Nong Pai in Suphanburi to stay with Phra Acharn Suwath and receive initial meditaion instruction. However, Acharn Suwath sent him to Wat Tungsammakheedhamm, also in Suphanburi Province, for temporary instruction from Phra Acharn Sangwahn Khemmako, who had in fact been Luang Phor Sanong’s teacher. Phra Acharn Sangwahn instructed him in meditation technique and told him to return to Wat Nong Pai, if he had any questions Luang Phor Sangwahn would come to him at Wat Nong Pai.

When he started to practise intensive Vipassana Meditation, he experienced happiness, lightness, and peace such as he had never encountered before in his life. So, he did not disrobe after a single rainy season, as is usual in Thailand, but stayed for the first three years of his monk hood at Wat Nong Pai, Suphanburi Province, Thailand, where he spent a long time keeping silence and meditating in his small hut.

Then he went to another teacher, this time in Sukhothai Province, and stayed there for the rainy-season retreat, which was con-ducted in a cemetery. The teacher became ill and had to return to Bangkok, so Acharn Tippakorn stayed on alone in the cemetery, which was near a village. He stayed there for a full year, visiting the village to help the people there. All the time he lived with just an umbrella and a mosquito net, which is common in the Dutanga (Wandering Forest Monk) Tradition.

After that year he went to Mae Hong Sorn Province and lived on the top of a mountain near a Meow hilltribe village. In the beginning he stayed in the forest with just his umbrella for protection, but after a while the tribespeople developed faith in him and built him a small hut.

The people of that hilltribe weren’t Buddhists, but they did believe in spirits. They lived mainly by growing opium and trading it for the necessities of life, and in fact the whole village was addicted to opium. By the end of the four years that Acharn Tippakorn stayed there, the whole village had stopped cultivating drugs and taking them. He provided them with nutritious food and medicine during the time of their withdrawal, and taught them how to live more sanitarily and healthily and how to help themselves in many other ways. He taught them how to protect themselves and their families and not to allow drugs to enter their village anymore. He introduced them to planting trees, and encouraged them to create a whole area were people could not come to cut down the trees but had to leave the environment in as natural a state as possible. He still visits this village every year, bringing medicine, warm clothes, and toys to the villagers.

When Acharn Tippakorn returned to Wat Sanghathan in 1998, the Venerable Luang Phor Sanong Katapunyo, the abbot of Wat Sanghathan, asked him to take over Wat Thamkrissanadhammaram near Khao Yai National Park. This temple is also called Ban Sawangjai, which means House of a Mind Full of Light. Since then he has been in charge of this temple, and attends to many Thai and foreign meditation students there. He has also aided a few Thais and foreigners in getting rid of their addiction to drugs, and has helped as well a few people with mental problems which were not cured by psychiatric or mental hospitals. Through his loving kindness he has been able to give help to many people who had great difficulty in other environments.

Meanwhile, more and more foreign students from all over the world have been coming to his Center to learn about meditation and how to solve their daily problems through the Dhamma. Acharn Tippakorn has translators fluent in the English and German languages and welcomes foreigners of every nationality and religion. He always emphazises the importance of developing a peaceful and calm mind for the longlasting happiness of sentient beings.

At Wat Thamkrisanadhammaram there are monthly retreats open to both Thais and foreigners. Each course starts every first Saturday of the month and lasts for seven days.

Everyone is truly welcome!

Ban Sawangjai

Wat Thamkrissanadhammaram

Klongdea, Moosee

Pak Chong

Nakorn Ratchsima 30130

THAILAND

Tel: +66 (0)44 249 164

e-mail: bansawangjai@hotmail.com

www.vimokkha.com