Class and Difference Disappear

Mae Chee Kaew was a countrywoman who lived a simple village life in the northeastern region of Thailand and overcame enormous diffculties in her attempt to leave home and follow the Buddha’s noble path to freedom from suffering. Her persistence, her courage, and her intuitive wisdom enabled her to transcend all conventional boundaries — both those imposed upon her by the world she lived in and those limiting her mind from within — and thereby find release from the bondage of birth and death.

Although she lived and practiced under the same constraints that most women practitioners have had to endure, she embraced that challenge, skillfully harmonizing her practice to fit smoothly within the conventional monastic framework. By surrendering wholeheartedly to that time-honored system, she succeeded in turning its apparent drawbacks to her advantage. Instead of complaining of unequal status, Mae Chee Kaew diligently cultivated a mind of clear and spontaneous awareness, and thereby succeeded in cutting through her deeply-rooted delusion of personal and cultural identity.

Viewed in the light of transcendent insight, the solid world of class and difference in which she had spent her entire life evaporated and disappeared.

This reflection about Mae Chee Kaew is from the book, Mae Chee Kaew, (pdf) p. 18, compiled from Thai sources & written by Bhikkhu Dick Sīlaratano.