The Five S’s in Thailand
May 10th, 2007 by Lillian
I learnt about these 5 s in language school. Wonder if they really teach them in thai schools? Do you know?
Sa-At
Clean. In a moral sense and in a simple absence of dirt
Suphap
Polite. Manners in traffic, or where the right decent clothes. Mai Suphap is to be rude. Like ask to many questions, wear indecent clothes, not show respect to elders etc..
Samruam
Proper behavior ,restrained Is often connected with jai yen. A monk when out receiving his alms should keep his eyes on the ground ahead of him. ( I don’t really understand this one.. sorry)
Sanuk
Fun. Extremely important that everything is sanuk. Sometimes we farang don’t really react well to things Thais consider sanuk.. like a laughing when something sad happens in a movie… But generally this one is easy to do.
Saduak
Convenient… The opposite is mai saduak which would be a reason not to show up for work, because its raining….
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i dunno if they really teach this 5 S in Thai school… but i know my mum taught me those.
The reason a monk should keep his eyes lowered whilst on alms round….. and at all times he is outside of his temple……
People going to the temple should dress properly, and couples should not hold hands or act in a way to cause any monks to get feelings about sex…….. if a monk is trying to distance himself from a normal householder’s life and lead a life of celibacy…it is unkind for people to flaunt young women around him…. so women should dress appropriately…..
When outiside his temple he should be trying to protect his eyes from seeing too many distracting sights, which can cause problems in his meditation, and also when recieving food into his alms bowl he only opens it and allows the food to be placed inside, no need to look into the eyes of the donor, no need to express approval or disapproval…… he is not begging for food….he is giving the people the opportunity to make merit by donating food to the monks and so supporting the Sangha, without which the Dhamma of the Buddha could not be taught.