“Although Singhapahu succeeded in his objective and satisfied the deep-seated
resentment that had been festering since his youth, the moment he heard the shout,
‘The king is dead!’ his body collapsed to the ground. His once strong body became
weak and powerless. He was filled with a question he couldn’t answer:

‘What have I done?’

‘Did I intentionally kill my own father?’

When he realized what he had done, tears of remorse flowed uncontrollably. He bowed
his head to the ground in shame, repeatedly saying, ‘What have I done?’ When the close
soldiers saw this, they approached and tried to comfort Singhapahu, saying it was an
accident, and he shouldn’t blame himself,” Lord Phoche narrated.

“While transporting his father’s body back to the capital, Singhapahu was like a person
without consciousness. His eyes were vacant, and he kept repeating, ‘What have I
done?’ He felt so remorseful that he couldn’t eat or sleep. Even though his mother and
his queen took turns comforting him, saying it wasn’t his fault, it was just an accident,
he didn’t intend to do it, those words couldn’t alleviate his guilt. Because he knew in his
heart that it wasn’t an accident. Only he and his father’s eyes, watching him before he
died, knew the truth. Images of the love and goodwill his father had shown him in the
past constantly flashed through his mind. Images of when he was a child, when his
father took him to play, took him to study with teachers, bought him his favorite things.
The more he thought, the more he realized his own wickedness, until he didn’t know
how to face anyone. Months passed, and the remorse showed no signs of fading. On the
contrary, he became even more grief-stricken and self-blaming, causing the
administration of the country to come to a standstill.”

“Until one day, Singhapahu Maharaja’s mother took him to a temple to meet a
respected abbot. That visit relieved Singhapahu of his guilt because the monk
suggested a way to atone for his sin: by building a temple. The merit from building a
temple would absolve him of the sin he committed against his father. So, he
immediately planned to build that temple. He chose the area used for his father’s
cremation ceremony, or the western part of the city, and named the temple ‘Wat Sala
Bap’ (Temple of Atonement). As for the thicket, the location where he killed his father,
he built a Buddha image in the middle of the forest as another form of atonement, but
it didn’t have the status of a temple because it was 13 kilometers away from the capital.
Today, that Buddha image still stands in the middle of a rice field, but it is in a
dilapidated state. From then on, Singhapahu became a king who only built temples.
Any monk who asked for donations to build a temple or a Buddha image, he wouldn’t
hesitate at all. So, the area around the city of Singhapura was full of temples.”

“As time passed, Chakkrasiha Kumara grew up to become ‘Chakkrasiha Rajabutra.’ He
was sent to study various subjects to inherit the throne and become a perfect king in
the future. He had the opportunity to study Buddhism from leading teachers in other regions and had the opportunity to ordain as a monk when he reached the appropriate
age at the temple his father built. This brought great joy to Singhapahu and his queen,
especially his father, who wanted to accumulate as much merit as possible to atone for
his sin and believed that if his son ordained, his parents would be able to hold onto the
edge of his robe and ascend to heaven with him.”

“Chakkrasiha Rajabutra witnessed his father’s lifelong activities, which was building
temples. At that time, he had already built over 60 temples in his city, not including
hundreds of other temples in other cities, as well as donating wealth to support
temples and attend to every monk. Especially regarding the creation of Buddha images,
if his father learned that any city or district was going to build a temple, he would send
people to reserve to build the main Buddha image immediately. Sometimes, there were
disputes between the locals who also wanted to build the Buddha image. There was
competition to be the sole sponsor of the construction. Combined with when
Chakkrasiha Rajabutra ordained as a monk and witnessed the behavior of the heretics
who disguised themselves as monks, using religion as a way to make a living, setting up
fortune-telling schools, performing rituals to ward off bad luck, casting spells,
enhancing destiny, creating amulets and charms, and engaging in immoral behavior
and sexual misconduct, he began to question various rituals, especially those his father
was adhering to.”

“Many times, Chakkrasiha Rajabutra told his father about the events happening inside
the temple because he had seen the behind-the-scenes closely while ordained as a
monk. Inside the temple, there were many hidden agendas. Some monks intentionally
ordained to seek wealth. When they got the wealth, they used it to indulge themselves,
which was not the way of monks. Some used to be thugs, but just by ordaining as
monks, people respected and worshiped them.

Especially the most important thing, the core of Buddhism, which no one paid
attention to at this moment, was the matter of accessing wisdom from the Buddha
within oneself. Accessing a state that is the opposite of relying on external things. That
is the true potential that arises from within, or the matter of ‘wisdom.’ He observed
that the processes that were happening and what his father was doing were all
promoting reliance on external things. Especially the competition to build Buddha
images to gain merit was destroying people’s potential, obstructing them from relying
on themselves. When they stood before the Buddha image, they would forget their own
potential, their faith in the Buddha within, and become reverence that came from fear.
When there was fear, deep down, the feeling would inherently command that he was
inferior, that his potential was less, resulting in behavior that made him rely on
something, and that something was the Buddha, which was not the true purpose of the
Buddha.”

“Well, this is the origin of the disagreement between Chakkrasiha Rajabutra and his
father, Singhapahu. No matter how much he explained, his father would never
understand. He still insisted on building temples and Buddha images, which at that
time he secretly learned that his father had set a goal to build one thousand temples
before he died. Achieving such a goal required increasing taxes on the people or
waging war against other cities to make them tributaries, so he could collect more tribute. Chakkrasiha Rajabutra pondered for a long time about what to do because
changing his father’s mind would be difficult, given his trauma from the sin he
committed against his grandfather. Then one day, Chakkrasiha Rajabutra had a good
idea.” Lord Phoche narrated in detail.