8.2.3 Phra Dhammakosajarn (Prayoon Mererk, Dhammacitto)
Phra Dharmakosajarn, born in 1995. C.E. is a Buddhist Chief Abbot of Wat Prayurawongsawat in Bangkok, and a member of the Secretariat to the Executive Committee for the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand. He also serves as Rector of Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University (MCU) in Thailand, and is the Ecclesiastical Governor of Region II. He is interested in interfaith dialogue and currently sits on the Board of World Religious Leaders for the Elijah Interfaith Institute.8
After receiving his Doctorate Degree, he lectured for a time at MCU. In 1986, the Thai Sangha Supreme Council posted him to the Thai Buddhist Temple in Chicago, U.S.A. as a Dhammadita (missionary monk). He returned to MCU to serve as Director of the Academic Division and later served as the first Dean of the Graduate school, Deputy Rector for Research and Planning, and Deputy Rector for Academic Affairs. His Holiness, the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand, appointed him the Rector of MCU an 1997 C.E. and a year later appointed him Ecclesiastical Governor of Region II covering the provinces of Ayutthaya, Saraburi, and Ang Thong.
Apart from Sanghaadministrative work, he is one of Thailand's scholar monks, and the author of more than 60 books on Buddhism and philosophy. His published works in Thai and English include, among others, A Buddhist Approach to Peace, Selflessness in Sartre's Existentialism and Early Buddhism (1988), Buddhist Morality (1994), and A Comparative Study of the Thought of Buddhadasa and Satre (1993), History of Greek Philosophy, Buddhist Worldview, and International Recognition of the Day of Vesak.
He has been invited to give Dhamma talks on Thai radio and television and has, for the past twenty years, annually delivered lectures not only