Thai forest tradition (kammaṭṭhāna) · Dhammayut order
Ajahn Sao
Phra Ajahn Sao Kantasīlo Mahāthera
หลวงปู่เสาร์ กนฺตสีโล
1861–1941 Ubon Ratchathani, northeast Thailand
The quiet root of the forest tradition: a monk of very few words who took to the forests of the northeast, kept the ascetic practices, and taught by what he had become — above all, to Ajahn Mun.
Ajahn Sao was born in Ubon Ratchathani in 1861, in the northeast of Thailand that would give the forest tradition nearly all its great teachers. He ordained in the Dhammayut order, and at a time when most monks’ lives centred on study and ceremony, he chose the forest.
He lived as the Buddha’s first disciples had: dwelling at the foot of trees and in caves, eating once a day from the alms bowl, keeping the dhutaṅga practices the Vinaya allows. He taught very little in words. Those who trained with him learned from his conduct, and from the meditation word he passed on to them — buddho, the recollection of the Buddha held in a single breath.
His most important student was a young monk named Mun. Together they wandered the forests of the northeast, and together they are remembered as the founders of the tradition. Ajahn Sao died in 1941.