NIL CHOEUN, seated, reaches out to local teens to help at the Khmer Buddist Temple.
Nil Choeun is a monk, a full-time volunteer and a representative of the Khmer Buddhist Temple of Ontario.
He recently gained attention from the city for his work as a religious and social leader to Vaughan’s Cambodian community.
The 29-year-old became a monk in 1997 in his home country of Cambodia. In 2004, he was sponsored by those at Khmer Buddhist Temple to come share the Buddhist philosophy with residents of Vaughan, especially Cambodians.
“I wanted to experience another country,” Choeun says.
He left Cambodia —where monks are highly respected —for Canada, a place where monks make up a smaller portion of the population. Once here, he faced a language barrier.
Now five years later, Choeun is happy in his new life, living at the temple at 9575 Keele St. In his role as temple representative, he handles many responsibilities, including hosting celebrations, traditional ceremonies and religious events, teaching the Cambodian language to youth, and as Choeun simply puts it, to “help others to live in peace”.
Choeun says wholesome deeds lead to a better future and it’s through these deeds that we achieve peace in ourselves.
“(I do it) to serve the community,” he says. “To make a good community.”
It’s the cause-and-effect idea of karma — something Choeun tries to teach others.
Not always with luck, though, he says. Choeun recalls one troubled teen who kept falling in with the wrong crowd, smoking and drinking, even after the monks advised otherwise.
“It’s hard to change them to do good,” he says. “(Teenagers) listen but they still don’t try to correct themselves.
“I want them to have a good life, that’s all.”
Choeun encourages all, not just Cambodians, to visit the temple and learn more about Buddhism.
