This story was told by Archan Tia of Wat Sungai Siput (http://www.archantia.info) to me, during my volunteering jobs in the temple.
So, let’s cut a long story short and go straight the core of this amazing story. 20 years ago when Archan Tia was still in Thailand, under the teaching of his master Luang Phor Thop, he got to know more about this legendary monk from his master as his master used to meet with LP Thep Lok Udorn before. After Archan Tia became a forest monk somewhere in the jungle in Thailand, he decided to seek LP Thep out by himself. After countless days of searching in the jungle he ended up with nothing. He had tried so many approaches, physically and spiritually but non of them worked, until one day he was really frustrated and out of desperation he shouted very loud “LP Thep, where are you? I can’t find you!” After he finished shouting, and when he turned around, he noticed the ground had the footprints of a jungle pig, instinctively he just followed the track and this lead him to a cave where LP Thep Lok Udorn lived! Archan Tia told me that he wanted to run away when he first saw LP Thep Lok Udorn walk through the wall of the cave. He was not sure if the person in front of him was human or a ghost. Out of curiosity he then tried to touch LP Thep Lok Udorn to see weather he was solid like a human being or just mist like a ghost. He could feel his finger touching, just like on a human body, he could see his kasaya just like the one he currently wears, he is a human for real! But this didn’t satisfy Archan Tia, “maybe there is some kind of trick on the wall” Archan Tia thought. So he went to check the wall but there aren’t any tricks, just a flat wall without any gaps. Now that really convinced Archan Tia that who he saw is none other than the legendary monk LP Thep Lok Udorn!
Archan Tia said that LP Thep Lok Udorn is a very tall person with very long hands and legs. He said that the kasaya that LP Thep Lok Udorn wears needs to be three times the size that he wears. He spent 5 days in the cave named “Tam Sheng Chang” (I translate this from what I heard in Hokkien from Archan Tia). The word “Tam” means moon in Thai, and “Sheng” means cave. The cave is very big, the size of 3 football fields, and there is a hole where you can see the moonlight at night time; so I guess this is why they call it the cave of moonlight. I asked Archan Tia whether he learned any magic skills from LP Thep, he said that during that period LP Thep just taught him how to meditate. He said LP Thep is very focused on meditation and he favors those who are hard working in the practice of meditation. Archan Tia said that LP Thep can live that long because he has achieved the phase that is something very similar to what Buddha achieved. He said in meditation, there is one phase, the phase number 7, a very difficult phase to achieve, just right below the phase of becoming a Buddha, is the phase where you can control whether you want to live or die. According to Archan Tia, and please excuse if I have remembered it wrongly, there are a total of 8 phases in meditation, - 1 > 2 > 3 (Samadhi) > 4 (Zen) > 4 > 5 > 6 (Arahan) > 7 > 8 (Buddha) - the phase 7 is the phase where you can live for eternity. I asked him why Buddha still met his death while he had already achieved the highest phase of meditation. Archan Tia answered that Buddha had to follow what he told to his students, which is no one can escape from being born, getting old, getting sick and finally dieing. Archan Tia said Buddha can live for eternity IF someone asked him not to die, but his students never did so. Buddha told his students the news three times that he was going to die but none of them “demanded” that Buddha stay alive and not die.
“What else interesting happened in that cave?” I asked Archan Tia. He said that in the cave the food always seemed to be available, no matter how much you ate today; tomorrow you will see the same food again, in the same quantity, just like the day before. I guess this is the magic that they call “turning one into thousands” that can be performed only by god. Archan Tia said that LP Thep once showed him a visual by turning a rock into a TV screen, he use his hand to touch a rock and it turned into a TV screen to display a visual for Archan Tia to see. Archan Tia said during his conversation with LP Thep he noticed that sometimes he looked very old as if he forgot to “control” it.
Archan Tia then told me another story about LP Thep. Once upon a time there was a wedding ceremony in a village, they wanted to hire 9 monks (Thai people like the number 9) to perform the chanting event for blessing purposes, but there were only 8 monks attending. One of the monks is the local people’s monk leader, after a long time of waiting they saw another monk coming, so there are 9 monks now and when they are about to start the chanting, the newly came monk sat on the first place where it was suppose to be the place of the monk leader. The monk leader was very angry but he didn’t say anything. The newly arrived monk started to lead all the other 8 monks to chant, while they are chanting many people saw that monk start to become very old and back to normal again after the chanting ceremony was completed. Everyone in the hall was very shocked by what they had seen, when they are about to find out who exactly is that monk, they witness with their own eyes that the monk disappeared in front of them on their doorstep. That monk was LP Thep. Archan Tia said LP Thep likes to remain in low profile, even when he wants to bless the amulet that was created by his student for him, he chose to appear at midnight while everyone is asleep after a whole day of waiting for his arrival. He appeared and blessed the amulet and when he was about to leave he “awoke” his student to let them know that he came for the amulet blessing and then quickly disappeared.
That was the story told by Archan Tia about LP Thep. But what happened in that cave between Archan Tia and LP Thep in that 5 days is of more interest to me. So I keep asking him about that, he said nothing really much, most of the time he just practiced meditation inside the cave and LP Thep gave his guidelines if he found Archan Tia doing it the wrong way. LP Thep used to tell him, “remember your breath, it’s very important, you want to go down there (hell) or high above (heaven) is all based on how you breath”. Archan Tia said even now sometimes he will “see” LP Thep again during his meditation and this reminds him how to breathe correctly.
Archan Tia said that the reason why LP Thep is still around today maybe is because he wants to make sure that Buddhism remains in the way it was introduced by Buddha. If he finds people starting to lose confidence in Buddha’s teaching, he will know it and he will do everything in his power to help rebuild the reputation of Buddha. Archan Tia advises that if you want to “see” him then you have to be hardworking in meditation, he favors those people who are hardworking in practicing meditation. And oh by the way, the real name of LP Thep is actually LP Koung, “Thep” in Thai which means “god.” LP Thep is what people called him but LP Koung is his actual name, not many know his real name, even people from Thailand. So I asked Archan Tia how he knew about it and he said “5 days in the cave with him, what you think I don’t know his name meh?” lol… Archan Tia said LP Thep is from the Sukhothai kingdom. Sukhothai kingdom was an early kingdom in the area around the city Sukhothai, in north central Thailand. The Kingdom existed from 1238 till 1438. Archan Tia said LP Thep lived in the jungle to pass by for so many kingdom in this life.
Another interesting story to share before we end - Mr. Ng, the old committee member of Wat Sungai Siput encountered a strange experience many years ago when Archan Tia asked him to frame up the photo of LP Thep (the one that you can see now hanging in Wat Sungai Siput). Mr. Ng does not believe the story of LP Thep, so after he took the framed photo of LP Thep out from the workshop, he found that his car automatically locked by itself and worse than that, the car key was still inside the car. He then asked a locksmith to come to assist but no matter how hard the locksmith tried he still couldn’t get the car door open. So Mr. Ng called Archan Tia and told him what was happening, Archan Tia said you must apologise to the photo of LP Thep. Mr. Ng then quickly said sorry to the LP Thep photo and suddenly the car unlocked itself!
Well, interesting isn’t it, there are so many impossible things in our life that cannot be explained by today’s science. We have to open our heart to accept everything and learn to understand it by involving yourself in it, but you have to have faith in it and you have to believe it first, so do you believe it or not? Believe it! Lastly i hope this story to boost up the faith of Buddhism of everyone, may those who read this article gain wisdom and enlightenment, sadhu.
就让我来切入主题吧。话说20几年前当阿占爹还是在泰国当和尚时他就通过民间传说以及从他的师父口中而知道LP Thep Lok Udorn 这一号人物，在泰国当地LP Thep Lok Udorn的名字可是响当当的，他就好像话在人间的神一样，那么的神秘，那么的不可思议，因此人家就给他取名为 “神和尚”，Thep 的泰语就是神的意思。阿占爹的师父也多次的跟LP Thep有接触过，我想这也促使了阿占爹也要追随他师父的脚步来跟这一位高僧学习佛法的原因。当阿占爹成为 “丛林和尚”后他就不曾放弃寻找这位听说隐居在深山的高僧，但多次的寻找不果，无论是通过步行的方式还是通过坐禅的方式都好，他都无法跟这位高僧联系上。 有一天阿占爹真的发狂了，就在空中大吼 “LP Thep你在那里！我已经找了你好久都找不到”，正当他大吼完毕转身回头的时候就发现地面上有山猪的脚印，发至于内心的直觉阿占爹就跟着那脚印往前走，最 后那脚印停止在一个很大的山洞口前，阿占爹就进入了那山洞。阿占爹说跟着他就看到一幕很离奇的事，他看到一位身高八尺，批着深黄色袈裟的和尚既然穿墙而过 向他走来，阿占爹说他当时真的很害怕很想逃走，因为他并不确定眼前的是人还是鬼。但他还是定下来，并且用手去触摸他，发现眼前的这位和尚既然是实体，而且 身上穿着的袈裟也和自己穿的一样，没有任何不同，这时阿占爹心想必定是那面墙壁有问题，类似碍眼法的玄关，因此他就去检查那面墙，但发现只是普通的一面石 墙，并没有任何的机关。这时候的阿占爹真的信服了，他眼前的这位正是他寻觅多时，900多岁人言 “神和尚”的高僧！
阿占爹说LP Thep Lok Udorn是个名副其实的 “高僧”，身高8尺，身上穿着袈裟是他的3倍，长手长脚，面貌严肃和祥。他们在那取名为 “TamShengChang”的山洞里一起共渡过了5天。“TamShengChang”的翻译为 “月光山洞”，面积非常的大，可以容下3个足球场，山洞的里头上方一个大洞，到了月圆之夜就会有月光照射进来。我问阿占爹，既然连地方以及山洞的名字也知 道了，以现代的科技，要找他有何困难？阿占爹说，他既然懂得长生不老之术那么当然也懂得隐身术，一般人要找到他是绝对不可能的事，因为一般人的心境很难像 他一样高，所以只有他可以选择要不要让你找到他。我继续问他到底5天之内有没有发生了什么事，比如有没有向他请教一些法术之类的，阿占爹说没有，因为大部 分时间都在学习如何的禅坐，当阿占爹的坐禅方式错了的时候LP Thep Lok Udorn就会指导他。阿占爹说LP Thep Lok Udorn是一位很讲究坐禅功夫的和尚，他可以活到今天完全是靠禅修得来的，阿占爹说禅修到某一个境界就可以脱离生死达到长生不老，那个境界就是成为佛陀 的前一个境界，既是第7阶层。他说在禅修里一共有8个阶层，即1 > 2 > 3 (Samadhi) > 4 (禅) > 4 > 5 > 6 (阿罗汉) > 7 > 8 (佛陀), 第7阶层就是可以控制生死的阶层。听到这里我就问阿占爹说既然佛陀本身已经修成正果那么他必然已经经历过第7阶层，那么为什么他到最后还是涅盘呢？阿占爹 说因为佛陀在世时教导大家人生必定会经历过“生、老、病、死”，无一人避免，为了不要违反自己的教诲因此他本身也选择了走向死亡这条路。佛陀知道自己快要 面临死亡时就曾经3次的告诉他的子弟，但没有任何人尝试挽留他，阿占爹说如果当时有人挽留他也许佛陀不会选择那么快的抛弃自己的肉身，而继续的留在世间弘 扬佛法。
我继续的问到 “那么在这5天之内还发生过什么有趣的事情呢？” 阿占爹说，他们的食物似乎永远都吃不完，不顾今天你吃了多少，到了明天同样的食物还是会于同样的数量呈现在眼前。听到这里我就想起有一门法术叫做“化一为 百”，可以把食物或东西由一化十或更多，我想LP Thep就是懂得应用这一门法术吧。阿占爹还说，LP Thep曾经利用石头转化为电视机的荧幕来呈现影像给他看，他说只见LP Thep用手抚摸过石头的表面，那石头的表面就好像电视机的荧幕一样可以用来播放影像，非常的神奇。致以影像的内容是什么我就没再继续发问下去了。阿占爹 说在那5天之内，有时候会发现LP Thep的面貌会变得非常的苍老，这是因为如果他忘了 “控制”的话他的样貌就会像百岁老人一样，如果他察觉自己的容貌变了的话他就会赶快的“修复”回原来的样子。
阿占爹继续告诉我有关LP Thep的故事，他说在很久以前有一对新人举行婚礼，在泰国当地的风俗如果新人结婚是要请和尚来诵经祝福的，而且数量最好是9位和尚，因为泰国人喜欢9， 为吉祥。话说当天的婚礼只有8位和尚到现场，还少了一位，正当大伙儿在等待时，第九位和尚才姗姗来迟，眼见人数到齐了，正当诵经仪式正要正式开始时，只见 那最后来的和尚大剌剌的既然坐在首席之位，在这8位和尚当中其中有一位长老级的和尚，那位子本来应该是他坐的，但此时既然被这位没有人认识的和尚霸占去 了，因此那长老的心里就非常的不高兴，但他也没作响。诵经仪式开始了，坐在首席的和尚既然领导大家来诵经，看似非常的有经验，在诵经的过程当中很多民众发 觉到这位和尚有时开起来非常的苍老，但不一会儿就会变回原来的样貌。诵经仪式完毕了，当大家正要去跟这位和尚了解有关他的时候，大伙儿发现那和尚走到门前 既然凭空消失在大家的眼前！后来大家才知道这位和尚就是LP Thep了。至于为什么LP Thep会选择在这对新人结婚的时候出现我就没再问下去了。阿占爹还说了另一个有关LP Thep的故事，他说有一次LP Thep的徒弟们为他打造了一批自身牌，佛牌打造好了之后就放在以前他出家的庙里，大伙儿集聚在一起要等LP Thep的到来为佛牌加持，但等了一整天都看不见LP Thep的出现，到了半夜大家都困了，就在迷迷糊糊当中看见LP Thep走向门口消失不见了。原来LP Thep是等大家都睡着了的时候才静悄悄的前来为佛牌加持，但为了要让他的徒弟知道他已经来过了，就选择他要离开的时候给他们看到他离去的那一幕。LP Thep这位高僧是个非常低调的人，他的行踪也非常的神秘，他的行为更是引人入胜。
我相信在那5天还发生过许多的事情但是阿占爹保留了一些不说。我问阿占爹师傅，那么为什么只住5天就走了，他说他要学的，LP Thep要教的已经完成了，大家都各自忙自己的事了，于是5天过后阿占爹收拾好东西自己一个人走出山洞继续他的深山修行。阿占爹说，到了现在如果他的打坐 方式稍微有错误时，LP Thep就会现身引导他，LP Thep曾经对他说过，“你要到下面去（地狱）还是要到上面高高的地方（天堂），完全由你的呼吸来决定。坐禅时的呼吸很重要，你不可忘记它。”还有要跟大 家分享的是，LP Thep 的真名其实是 LP Koung （译音为：空），之前提过，”Thep” 的泰语是神的意思，是人家给他的名，LP Koung才是他的真名，这就很少人知道，即便是泰国当地人也很少人知道，我问他那你怎么会知道了，阿占爹笑说，我跟他在山洞里相处了5天，你以为我没有 问过他的名字咪？呵呵。。。阿占爹还说LP Thep其实是早期泰國素可泰（Sukhothai）王朝的人，在那年代就有佛教，LP Thep就是那时代的人，经历了许许多多的改朝换代，隐居在深山中活到了我们现在的这个时代。阿占爹说LP Thep的存在可能是为了要复兴佛教，比如说如果有一天人们不再相信佛陀教育了，那么他就会再次的出现来挽救大局。最后再跟大家说一个有关LP Thep以及空怀泰佛寺的近代故事。话说空怀泰佛寺在早期成立时，阿占爹就曾经托理事成员黄先生带着LP Thep的相片到城市去装上相框，可能是黄先生不够诚心或对LP Thep这位高僧的故事感到值疑，因此正当他把装好相框的照片从店里拿出来要去开车时，汽车既然在众目睽睽之下自己反锁起来，由于钥匙还在汽车里面因此黄 先生就无法把汽车打开，最后连请来的锁匠也都无法把汽车的门锁打开。在行之无策之后黄先生就打电话告诉阿占爹这件事，阿占爹听后就教他对着照片道歉，果真 在黄先生道完歉之后汽车就自动的开锁了！
以上就是我要跟大家分享有关这位LP Thep 高僧的传奇故事了，希望供大家做为参考，因为网上对这位高僧的资料实在太少了。世上无奇不有，我们必须打开心胸来迎接一切，积极的去努力学习研究，这样才会增广知识，开发智慧，让我们的人生不会留白。我也希望可以借此故事来加持大家对佛教的信仰，希望读取这篇文章的同修们可以增加智慧，增加信心，善哉。。。(完)
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