My ordination ceremony took place on July 11, 1937 at 4:19 p.m. The ceremony was held inside the ordination hall at Chanthanārāma Monastery, which was located on the banks of the Chanthaburi River, not far from Sai Ngaam Forest Monastery where I lived. Chanthanārāma Monastery was the administrative headquarters of the Dhammayut Monastic Order for the provinces of Chanthaburi, Ranong, and Trat, and was the designated ordination center for the whole area. In those days, a stand of large canda sandalwood trees, from which the monastery got its name, grew beside the well on the monastery grounds. Presiding over my ordination was my preceptor, Venerable Ajahn Sian Uttamo, the monastery’s abbot. The Venerable Ajahn Cheui Thongkhamdee was my kammavācācariya chanting instructor and the Venerable Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo was my anusāvanācariya teaching instructor. I was given the Pāli name “Cundo.” I was one month and five days into my twenty-second year, and I was the first person for whom Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo chanted a part in a monk’s ordination ceremony.

I still remember Ajahn Lee’s instructions to me on that occasion, “You are a meditation monk. The primary work of a meditation monk has been assigned to you today at your ordination. It is given simply as five meditation objects to be memorized and reflected on in forward and reverse order: kesā—hair of the head; lomā—hair of the body; nakhā—nails; dantā—teeth; and taco—the skin that enwraps the body. It is up to you to contemplate the significance of these physical features in your meditation to the best of your ability. This reflection underlies the true work of those monks who practice according to the principles of Dhamma that were taught by the Lord Buddha.

“These five body parts are to be contemplated at length until you become aware that the body’s true nature is neither inherently beautiful nor desirable; but instead, that it is fundamentally unappealing, changeable, unsatisfactory, and thus should not be seen as belonging to you. These five parts form the external, visible features of the human body, the appearance of which can arouse lust and attachment in the mind. Only when the body is properly dissected and analyzed does the mind gradually develop a strong sense of dispassion toward the human form, causing the desires associated with it to begin to weaken and dissolve away. The mind is then free to devote itself to subtler aspects of meditation in search of more lasting and worthwhile forms of happiness.”

Following the ceremony at Chanthanārāma Monastery, I returned with Ajahn Lee and Ajahn Kongmaa to Sai Ngaam Forest Monastery where, from 1937-1939, I spent my first three rains retreats as their student. Those two ajaans had been Dhamma friends for many years. Before they first met, Ajahn Lee had already ordained as a monk at the temple in his home village. When he heard that a wandering dhutaṅga monk was camping out in the local cemetery, he went to pay his respects and ask him some questions. Ajahn Lee was inspired by the dhutaṅga monk’s demeanor, which was so different from the other monks he knew. Ajahn Lee asked the monk who his teacher was. He replied that his teacher was Ajahn Mun Bhūridatto, who at that time was staying not far away at Burapha Monastery in the city of Ubon Ratchathani...