They begin the morning at dawn clothed in white, but by mid-day the 25 Western men gathered at Thailand's largest temple wear the saffron robes of the Buddhist monk.
With their heads shaved and concentration on their faces, they kneel in front of the abbot and other senior monks of Wat Dhammakaya to recite in ancient Pali some of the 227 precepts that will guide them through the next several weeks.
The ceremony in a traditional Thai chapel is closely watched here; elderly Thai women in white robes sit on the matted floor with their backs to the temple walls, palms together in prayer, offering support to the novices about to embark on a religious journey to seek, in part, the meaning of mindfulness.
Most are undergoing a temporary, one-month ordination, but for some, the ritualistic donning of the orange robes represents a spiritual renewal that could last a lifetime.
"It is impossible to make progress without faith," an English voice tells them, translating the abbot's words moments before their ordination. "The first thing is to be able to overcome our bad habits, the character traits which we may have from the past."
The voice belongs to 40-year-old Nicholas Thanissaro, one of Thailand's best known farang (Western) monks and the temple's primary interlocutor for American and European Buddhist novices. The only visible traces of his English identity are his light skin and the soft fullness of his facial features. With his head shaved and bearing the temperament of a senior religious figure, there is little to identify him as a foreigner.
Yet Phra (monk) Nicholas is among a growing number of Westerners putting on the robes in Thailand, keen on exploring the wisdom of Buddhist doctrine but also on embracing a deeper Eastern spirituality and meditation that they see is lacking back home.
"The general image of religion is getting worse in Western eyes," Phra Nicholas says, as he expounds on the hits organized faith has taken in recent years, particularly with the emotional touchstone that the US-led war in Iraq has become. Religion, he argues, frames a clash of civilizations.
"Religion is seen as a source of conflict, a source of wars, a source of people who don't have reasons for doing things. They follow blind faith.
"But Buddhism is seen as different," he continues. "It is a religion of wisdom, which encourages people to think, encourages people to believe in cause and effect."
Here in the serene 325-hectare temple complex outside Bangkok which is home to some 1,000 monks and a rapidly expanding and controversial Buddhist movement, Westerners have been encouraged to explore the dharma, re-evaluate priorities, question their role in life.
The ceremony is the third annual ordination of foreign monks at Wat Dhammakaya. In addition to the 25 Westerners, there are another 25 Chinese and Taiwanese participating.
"In Thailand we have the tradition of temporary ordination. So people ordain, and they can draw on their purity of practice when they go back to their everyday life and use what they've learned."
Today's newest monks are the latest foreign men to be ordained in a kingdom that already has an estimated 300,000 local monks, about one for every 215 Thai citizens.
Like their Thai counterparts, most of the new recruits will join the monkhood for a month, then return to their lives as lawyers, stock analysts or engineers. Others, like Phra Nicholas, opt to stay for good.
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