With my dear brother, the Venerable Ariyawangso, World Peace Envoy, during one of my early trips to Thailand in 1989. Although our Beloved Brother, Ariyawangso, did not speak English and I did not speak Thai, we immediately found a deep spiritual brotherhood. We would spend hours, through his translator, visiting and laughing together.
After this visit, our Beloved Brother and his Advisors, came to the University of Lethbridge and the Kainai First Nation, in Alberta, for a week visit in 1990. This was when he attended his first Sweat Lodge. During his visit, we held an Honoring Ceremony for him. At this Ceremony, he was gifted with a beaded red, yellow, black and white Medicine Wheel. He wore it from then on, until he entered the Forest with no worldly possessions.
Our visits continued until our Beloved Brother became a Monk and went alone into the forest to pray and meditate, but whenever I came to Thailand, he somehow knew I was coming and would come out of the Forest so we could have a visit.
Our Beloved Brother, was a fierce environmentalist and vegetarian. Through his direct action, for instance, the Esan Mountain Range was protected from developers who wanted to reduce these mountains to gravel. Because of this act, numerous assassination attempts were made on his life, even after he left this physical world, so to speak, and became a Monk living alone, meditating and praying deep in the forest!
The last time we were together was in 2005. Shortly after this heartfelt and joyful visit, our Beloved Brother, the Venerable, Ariyawangso, returned to the forest, and soon after passed to the "Other Side Camp."
It was through our Beloved Brother that I met my wife, Suthida. He was her Meditation Teacher five years before I met him. He was one of the great spiritual teachers and role-models of my life.
"World peace will prevail through religious brotherhood. Peace in the world begins in one’s heart and mind. Let us close our minds and hearts to any negative influences. There will be peace, first within us, then all over the Human Family. Our love to all that lives."
The Venerable Ariyawangso
