Pattaya Elderly Club members donated robes and necessities to monks in two Issan cities and helped an Issan school as part of a city-organized meditation and merit-making trip.
About 300 club members joined the June 18-21 excursion, which saw the seniors make merit at temples in Udon Thani and Nong Khai.
Six groups of members worked to raise funds for the trip, which stopped June 19 at Udon Thani’s Pa Banho and Pa Phuthong temples in Banphue District; Pa Khantiyanusorn in Namsom District, and on June 20, at Photchai Temple in Nong Khai.
Members of Pattaya’s Elderly Club sign up for a city-organized meditation and merit-making trip to Issan.
“This project was focused on teaching the elderly to correctly mediate, which is an activity that they like and is an activity they prefer to practice,” said Kanda Nawong, a vocational nurse with the Pattaya Health Promotion office.
The field trip also stopped to pay respect to Luang Pho Phrasai, a famous Buddhist teacher residing near the Kong River. In addition, the elderly donated cash to Ban Naken School, selected by members to support children’s education in the northeast.
“I believe this dharma project is very beneficial for older people because we not only get to make merit, but make new friends,” said member Sumruay Kantakhanant, 66. “It’s better than sitting at home and wondering when our children will take us to the temple. And I didn’t have to pay for this trip. If I had gone on my own, the cost would have been amazingly high.”
