area. Save Thai Nation In the midst of the Thai Financial crisis in the late 1990s, Ajahn Maha Bua initiated Save Thai Nation—a campaign which aimed to raise capital to underwrite the Thai currency. By the year 2000, 3.097 tonnes of gold was collected. By the time of Ajahn Maha Bua's death in 2011, an estimated 12 tonnes of gold had been collected, valued at approximated US$500 million. 10.2 million dollars of foreign exchange was also donated to the campaign. All proceeds were handed over to the Thai central bank to back the Thai Baht. The Thai administration under Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai attempted to thwart the Save Thai Nation campaign in the late 1990s. This led to Ajahn Maha Bua's striking back with heavy criticism, which is cited as a contributing factor to the ousting of Chuan Leekpai and the election of Thaksin Shinawatra as prime minister in 2001. The Dhammayut hierarchy, teaming-up with the Mahanikaya hierarchy and seeing the political influence that Ajahn Maha Bua could wield, felt threatened and began to take action. In the late 2000s bankers at the Thai central bank attempted to consolidate the bank's assets and move the proceeds from the Save Thai Nation campaign into the ordinary accounts which discretionary spending comes out of. The bankers received pressure from Ajahn Maha Bua's supporters which effectively prevented them from doing this. On the subject, Ajahn Maha Bua said that "it is clear that combining the accounts is like tying the necks of all Thais together and throwing them into the sea; the same as turning the land of the nation upside down." In addition to Ajahn Maha Bua's activism for Thailand's economy, his monastery is estimated to have donated some 600 million Baht (US$19 million) to charitable causes. Politic interest and death of Ajahn Maha Bua Throughout the 2000s, Ajahn Maha Bua was accused of political leanings—first from Chuan Leekpai supporters, and then receiving criticism from the other side after his vehement condemnations of Thaksin Shinawatra. Ajahn Maha Bua was the last of Ajahn Mun's prominent first-generation students. He died in 2011. In his will he requested that all of the donations from his funeral be converted to gold and donated to the Central Bank—an additional 330 million Baht and 78 kilograms of gold. Practices Meditation practices The purpose of practice is to attain the deathless (Pali: amata-dhamma), i.e. Nibbāna. According to the