พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าภาษาไทยคือ 'ภาษาใจ' ที่คนไทยโบราณผู้เห็นดวงใจได้จริงถอดความออกมาเป็นคำ เช่น สัญชาตญาณ เข้าใจ ขออภัย พร้อมเล่าประวัติพุทธศาสนาที่นครศรีธรรมราชอันเป็นจุดเริ่มต้นของการพัฒนาภาษาไทยให้ลึกซึ้งขึ้นPra Ajarn explains that Thai is a "language of the heart-mind," coined by ancient Thais who could genuinely see the sphere of the mind — words like sanchāt-yān (instinct), khao-jai (understand), and khor-aphai (asking forgiveness) all trace back to this — and recounts the history of Buddhism's arrival at Nakhon Si Thammarat, where the language began deepening.
Someone asked: why does Thai have so many words built on the word "jai" (heart-mind) — khao-jai (understand), sai-jai (pay attention), hen-jai (sympathize), roo-jai (know someone's heart), tok-jai (startled), sia-jai (sad)? Did ancient Thais genuinely see the sphere of the mind, and is that where our language comes from?
That's correct — Thai is a language of the heart-mind, distinct from Pali, which is the language that preserves the Buddha's teachings. This is why Thailand is no ordinary country; to learn the of the , one must also learn this Thai language of the heart-mind. Take the word sanchāt-yān (): other languages can't translate it and must simply memorize the foreign term, but Thai can decode it directly — combining sanchāt, meaning "the original nature of one's birth," with yān, meaning "inner knowledge." Together they mean inner knowledge present from the very origin. A baby turtle, for instance, hatches from an egg, digs itself out of the sand, and walks straight to the sea without any parent to guide it, because an inner nature — wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral — guides it. Whichever turtle carries a greater proportion of will be guided toward misfortune; whichever carries more of will be guided toward .
Another word is khor-aphai (asking forgiveness) — the full ancient form is khor-aphai-thot. But the demerit side doesn't allow this word to be used, substituting khor-thot (literally "asking for punishment/blame") instead. Notice that the Master never once used the word khor-thot — he always used khor-aphai, because demerit metes out punishment: do wrong, ask khor-thot ("for punishment") from someone, and they give you punishment. But ask khor-aphai ("for forgiveness"), and the wholesome grants forgiveness.
The word khao-jai (understand, literally "enter the heart-mind") requires actually entering the mind to perceive that -state, because a dhamma-state can only arise in the mind, nowhere else — without entering the mind, there is no understanding. Sai-jai ("place attention," literally "insert into the heart-mind") means wherever we focus, the mind is placed there — hence "placing attention" there. Hen-jai ("sympathize," literally "see the heart-mind") means we must look into someone's mind to see how much they suffer before we can truly sympathize. Roo-jai ("know someone's heart," literally "know the heart-mind") means probing inward to know within their mind. All these are words of the heart-mind language — including jai-dam ("black-hearted"), which Chinese uses the exact same literal expression for someone of poor character, or jai-sia ("heartbroken"), tok-jai ("startled"), jai-tok ("heart dropping") — countless such words. Each word is like a sphere, and the sphere of the mind itself has the shape of a round orb.
When asked whether this means ancient Thais practiced the very well, Pra Ajarn said this seems likely, pointing to Nakhon Si Thammarat province, where temples once stood densely packed one after another. Buddhism first arrived in Thailand from India, likely via Sri Lanka — a prince and princess from Sri Lanka resolved to carry the Buddha's relics and journeyed by sea, landing first at Nakhon Si Thammarat. Seeing the white crystal-sand beach, cool and shaded, they were struck by how fitting it seemed as a place to establish Buddhism, so they built a temple there and began spreading the teaching from that point. As Thais came to understand the three natures and put them into genuine use, seeing real results, it proved that the unwholesome truly exists and truly brings suffering, and the wholesome truly exists and truly brings benefit. Where Thais once revered spirits and deities, Buddhism elevated people's minds through the wholesome mind and s of the subtle body. As interest in practice grew, meditation developed toward the first , second jhāna, and various forms of -vision, and the language developed right alongside it — from the simple, plain speech of village life, concerned only with eating, living, and sleeping, gradually enriched with Pali and Sanskrit dhamma terms, including this language of the heart-mind, coined to name what people had genuinely come to see for themselves.