Pen mightier than the phone for monk-turned-major

No one actually needs to write anything by hand these days – everything’s done with the tip of the index finger, tapping out text on the mobile phone or swiping across digital keyboards. 

Standing out like a sore thumb in this crowd of agile indexes, though, is Royal Thai Navy chaplain Major Suthee Suksakol, whose posts on Facebook have made him a poster boy for elegant, old-fashioned handwriting.

There’s a lot of nostalgia at play in the popularity of the 200-plus photos Suthee has shared of his cursive script, but they’ve also inspired many people to get back to the simple writing they were taught in school (or at least try to get it right this time). Some of the pictures of Suthee’s hand-rendered verses and quotes have been shared more than 60,000 times.

Soopsip suspected right away that the major must have been a monk at one time, because in the old days (way, way back in the 1980s, say), only monks and palace scribes were masters of this sort of skill. And sure enough, we discovered that Suthee had indeed spent time in the saffron robes, achieving Level 9 as a Pali scholar. Once out of the monkhood he studied mass communication through Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, and then joined the Navy as a chaplain. 

With his intimate knowledge of Buddhism and his communication schooling, Suthee became a regular on Navy radio, contributing to the shows “Gansan Cheevit” (“Essence of Life”) and “Siamanusati” (“What Stands if Freedom Falls?”), among others. On request he also lectures on Buddhism to his fellow sailors, schoolchildren and the general public.

But the “preaching” that’s gained him the biggest audience has come on Facebook, where the major promotes the Thai language as a source of national pride that must be preserved. 

“Writing Thai script is part of my daily concentration practice,” he says. “I have many duties every day and they all compete for my time, but once I begin writing down my feelings in this ‘elaborate’ fashion, I can stop the world at the tip of my pen. I put all my concentration into the words I’m writing. 

“I never erase or cross out anything. If I write something wrong, I just write it over again. This is a way to control myself to focus only on writing, rather than wavering between that and something else. This is a good way to boost your concentration, and I’d be happy if others give it a try.”

The handwriting is beautiful in itself, but he also offers interpretations of the teachings he renders that are quite stirring. “Stop blaming karma and start blaming your lack of knowledge,” says one. “You might find that many problems you encounter have nothing to do with fate, but rather your lack of knowledge.”

“All the success I’ve had proves that practice makes perfect,” the major says. “It’s not the work of gods or luck. Whatever you want to have or want to be, simply ask for help from within and you will have it. It’s the most certain and fastest way to gain what you wish for. If you ask me for a magic spell that would grant your wishes, I offer three little words: ‘Practice, practice, practice.’”