From the time Candasaro was ordained as a Buddhist monk, he never ceased to pursue meditation study and practice. Regardless of how demanding his study routines were he never failed to make time for meditation each day. He followed the techniques taught by his ordination chaplain, Venerable Noeng, when he first began his practice. Later, he would travel to various temples renowned for their meditation masters and practiced with these masters. The following were some of the famous meditation masters he studied with:
Venerable Master Phrasangavaranuwongse (Eam) of Wat Rajasiddharam, Bangkok
Venerable Master Nyanavirat (Po) of Wat Phra Chetuphon, Bangkok
Venerable Master Singh of Wat Lakornthaam, Thonburi
Venerable Master Phramonkolthepmuni (Muy), Abbot of Wat Chakrawat, Bangkok
Venerable Master Pleum of Wat Kao Yai, Kanchanaburi
During the practice with Venerable Master Singh of Wat Lakornthaam, he managed to arrive at the state of calmness that his mind became perfectly still. Whereupon a bright sphere the size of an egg yolk appeared at the center of his body. His teacher assured him that this was an important benchmark in meditation that he had reached.
Candasaro's meditation skill progressed steadily. He completed training with these masters within a remarkably short time. Often, his teachers would tell him he had learned everything they knew and there was nothing more they could teach him. Some of them even persuaded him to teach alongside them. But Candasaro did not feel that his skill was advanced enough to teach others.
He left his old teachers to travel alone searching for more knowledge, going anywhere in Thailand where there was a reputable master. For several years he journeyed through many forests and mountains searching for the best meditation masters to apprentice with.
Eventually his travels took him back to Wat Songpinong, the temple where he was ordained in 1906. In those days the elder monks at this temple hardly put any attention to scriptural study. Without any help from the elders, the younger monks who were interested in scriptural study had nowhere to go. Usually, those interested in studying would be sent to Bangkok. When Candasaro went to take residence at Wat Songpinong in his eleventh year of monk hood he had already acquired the skill of the Pali language. He became the prime mover in establishing a school for scriptural studies at the temple. In spite of many obstacles, the school was eventually established. This school still exists today at Wat Songpinong.
Candasaro recalled the bundle of Mahasatipatthana, the Great Discourse on the Establishing of Mindfulness, he had tucked away many years ago at Wat Songpinong in hopes of being able to interpret it one day. He had made a vow to himself that as soon as he was able to translate this Discourse fluently, he would channel all his attention to meditation practice. He
was now able to translate that bundle fluently, and in accordance with his original intention, would discontinue his Pali studies and turn to the task of studying meditation with all his might.
It was only in retrospect that Candasaro realized that if he had continued to study and attained a high degree of scholarship, the Sangha authorities would surely have recruited him to work in an academic capacity to the detriment of his meditation practice.
