Suwicha Thakor has entered the monkhood in his hometown of Nakhon Phanom, after being released from prison where he was detained for over a year on lèse majesté charges.
On 11 July, Suwicha was ordained at Chonlatharn Bunyawas Temple in Nakhon Phanom’s Thakor subdistrict, and was given the religious name Khema Jitto.
He told Prachatai that he would not talk about worldly matters ‘for the reasons which are already known.’
Now he has the task of a Buddhist of disseminating Dharma which is the way to be free from suffering, and to help others to be free from suffering is a great merit, he said.
Although he has been immersed in the Buddhist teachings, he admitted that he still had ‘hindrances’, which are obstacles to Buddhist practitioners, regarding the innocent people who had suffered from recent events. He said that they should turn to dharma.
When he was imprisoned, he was determined to become a monk if he was released.
His younger brother told Prachatai that Suwicha had changed a lot.
Suwicha cited the teaching of the late Buddhadasa, a renowned and respected monk, to look at the good sides of things. ‘They have good and bad sides. Never mind. Just choose [to see] the good sides which do some good to the world. Don’t seek to know the bad sides. […] Simply put, if we talk only about good sides of each other, we’ll never quarrel and society will be peaceful.’
