Khunying Chamnongsri Hanchanlash
Siriwat Pokrajen
A woman of a thousand responsibilities and a hectic schedule that would put people half her age to shame, Khunying Chamnongsri Hanchanlash tells us how she loves to spend time alone in remote places to uncover “the way it is.” Siriwat Pokrajen goes to meet her.
Even Khunying Chamnongsri Hanchanlash herself finds it hard to say what it is she is seeking when she leaves the urban chaos of Bangkok, her friends, family and her usual routine to spend long periods in solitude in unfamiliar places, at times forgoing even the basic comforts of electricity and running water. It could be a secluded 'kuti ' in a forest monastery or a 300-year old manor house in England or a quiet seaside apartment in which all the other units are vacant.
While it is possible to imagine that this retreat from the world leads to some personal spiritual discoveries, it is certainly not happiness that Khunying Chamnongsri is hoping to find; well not directly. As she herself says, “happiness is something that if you don’t find.”
It is in her spacious condominium, overlooking the towering buildings and busy streets off Bangkok’s Wireless Road, that I meet this most inspiring Thai woman who, at 68, is as fascinating and full of energy as ever.
Listening to her I find myself surprised at the great number of things she has done in her colourful life, including co-founding the Rutnin Eye Hospital in 1964 with her first husband, the late Dr Uthai Rutnin. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in her forties when already a mother of four, has lectured at universities, hosted radio programs, has written movie scripts, produced documentaries and, over the years, been involved extensively in quite a number of charity and advocacy causes as well as research and education projects. Today she is probably better known as a writer. Her most recent best-seller was ‘Khen Krok Long Khao’, a collection of reflective and humorous articles.
A believer in the benefits of Buddhist meditation, Khunying Chamnongsri frequently organizes meditation retreats for Thais as well foreigners. But why this (some would say strange) habit of occasionally retreating from the world? This, the most “sublime of my pleasures” as she calls it, is a mystery even to her husband Dr Jingjai Hanchanlash. Actually, it grew out of her study and practice of the Dharma under the highly respected Buddhist monk, the late Buddhadasa, and the nun-scholar, Khunying Runjuan Indrakhamhaeng. In her early fifties she went through what she describes as the darkest period of her life and she needed to find a way to be at peace with herself. This is how she ended up at a meditation retreat at Suan Mok, the forest monastery founded by Buddhadasa in the southern province of Surat Thani.
“Back then, ten-day meditation retreats were held twice a month, one in Thai, one in English. I joined both… six consecutive retreats altogether. Then I asked Buddhadasa’s permission to stay on at the monastery.”
She yearned for an answer to her life’s questions and an end to her unrest, she explained. The revered monk gave her permission to stay in a secluded house at the far end of the women’s area. Backing onto a tall forest, the house offered the sense of solitude and the connection with nature that she was seeking. Most of her days were passed in meditation, solitary walks and in observing the small animals, birds and insects that inhabited the forest. Gradually, the awareness of the transient nature of her own thoughts and emotions and, indeed, of all things, grew and deepened. Out of the realization and acceptance that followed by three more months in the seclusion of a northeastern forest monastery.
To this day, a period of self-imposed solitude remains an important part of her life. She still goes away a few times each year, for a week or two. The experience allows her to enjoy fresh perspective on her life.
She knows that feelings and experiences of life are individual and, for good or bad, have to be faced alone. Even when surrounded by our loved ones, we each experience birth, pain and death on our own. Others can sympathies, empathise even, but ultimately our experiences belong to us as individuals. Her occasional solitude has made her accepting of this. We may not conquer fear, she says, but by watching it, understanding it, accepting it and learning from it we can live a more secure and contented life.
Khunying Chamnongsri feels the realization of “that way it is” that began in those six months were “wonderful beyond words” and they now underline most of her writing. She says, “If it had not been for my hitting rock-bottom during that period of my life, I would not have taken such measures to get away and re-evaluate my existence. I can only thank my happiness at that time for making me taking the inner journey on which I am still traveling.”
From: The Profile