88 novices ordaining through Wat Pho in honor of the Thai princess

I am sure it will be a great experience for your son and it holds the potential for some long-lasting benefits.  I am not a good follower, so was never tempted to do it myself.

I'm really of two minds about it.  On the more practical, pragmatic side I don't put much faith in the more mystical aspects, that it really could accumulate merit and good karma.  It should be an amazing, interesting experience for him that challenges him and brings other sorts of benefits though.  It establishes even more of a connection with that temple, which could bring about even more other interesting experiences later.

On the other hand I'm agnostic, not atheistic, and I can't completely discount the more superstitious, magical side of Thai beliefs.  Not everything I've experienced directly myself can be explained.  It's impossible for me to say if there is even any sort of cut-off point, beyond which too literal an interpretation or too specific a type of supernatural claims make sense.

I guess I didn't mention that I had ordained as a monk for two months at that same temple ten years ago.  Thais are a lot more open about their faith and who can participate, and in what ways, and I had the sense that they weren't really concerned with exactly how "Buddhist" I really was.  I'd been studying Buddhism for about 15 years at that point, and went back to college to get two degrees in the study of religion and philosophy centered on Buddhism just prior to then, so on at least one level I was quite committed to it, and familiar with the ideas. 

Studying Buddhism as practical life guidance, as theory in a university setting, and actually experiencing a living religion through rituals and taking up such a role are three completely different things.  I'm more into the first, how it really makes sense as an influence on everyday perception and understanding, but a living religious tradition is interesting, with a depth to it.

I wrote a blog post about that event, explaining how the ordination went, and the background, with lots of pictures of it:  http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.co … ne-in.html

Buddhism is a rather nice religion, chilled out in most respects.
Good luck to your lad and congratulations to you.

I just visited Keoni on a meditation retreat outside of Cha-am (they ordained through a program at a main temple in Bangkok, Wat Pho, but didn't spend the two weeks there), so I can pass on my impression of how that goes.  He's ok with it, but has mixed feelings about being separated from us. 

That was always the hard part; he's just a little kid, he's 9.  Two of the other kids are 10 but most are 11 and up; still maybe a bit young for a two week outing like that even at 11.  He has all those other kids around, and the monks are really nice.  One of them he even knows well, a monk who I stayed with 10 years ago when I ordained, who Keoni has been visiting with at the temple all of his life. 

We left early to check in with him on Friday night, and stopped by twice on Saturday, and once before a longish drive back on Sunday (weekend traffic was awful).  It helped spending time visiting, and they were nice about letting him duck out of whatever sessions were going on to spend a good bit of time just visiting instead.  The kids all seemed fine, relaxed and cheerful.  I think part of that is that Thai kids learn to play a social role early on, to come across as they're expected to come across.  Americans are really closer to the opposite, and with Keoni sort of in the middle--in addition to being the youngest--he stands out as the most unruly.  I guess that if a kid had done such an outing before it wouldn't really be difficult for them, like going to a two week summer camp for the second time.

It's been nice sharing pictures and talking about it with Keoni's best friend's mother (best friend who is a novice there), through Line (a communication program).  She is Thai, of course.  She's concerned too, and passed on that her son shares some of Keoni's apprehension.  He might take it better for being 11, or maybe he's just not quite as sensitive as Keo.

In general I think he's doing really well, that it's not so hard on him that the positives won't outweigh the difficulties.  That temple environment is beautiful, and although they do seem to sit a good bit, doing meditation and lectures.  The monks mix that up too, and they get out for different activities.  He came back from an alms round when we saw him at 7 AM or so on Saturday; they keep early hours.  Keoni's mother had him training to meditate for a number of months awhile back, and without that experience I think this would be a lot harder for him.  She thought it would help him focus and get upset less; I'm not sure if it made any difference related to that.  He was never really a problem in any way, just a little high strung.  Different people are different.

I was surprised that blog post was received as well as it was, drawing almost 9000 page views now.  I write about tea and the most popular of those always level out around 1500, and more typically around 300-400.  I discussed them doing an interview with Keoni in English, since that page I mentioned covers live feeds of events or just meditation sessions, and interviews, but it's all in Thai.  No nine year old can help re-interpret Buddhism very effectively but it would be interesting to hear what he says about the experience.