Meditation Retreat
Trip Start
Jun 11, 2008
1
53
62
Trip End
Aug 07, 2008
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Chiang Mai,
Thailand
Friday, August 1, 2008
I say goodbye to the really nice Thai family that runs my guest house--called White House, find a tuk-tuk (have I explained what these are? they're sort of like motorized rickshaws, with a roof but no doors or windows, driven by 1 guy in front, with seating for 1-6 people in back) and have him take me to Wat Suan Dok. This temple is only the meeting grounds--after a 2 hour Introduction to Buddhism lecture (I take notes--I feel like a student. Funny, in 4 weeks, I will be a student again) we all get transported to the International Meditation Center in the countryside of Chiang Mai.
I met a really cool girl, Sarah, who's Danish, and traveling around Thailand before volunteering for 3 months in Pattaya, teaching English to formerly prostituted women. This Sarah was so wonderful, I really wanted to be her friend, but then she left the retreat early. Some people only stayed for 2 days, the other half stayed for 3--she had intended on staying for the whole time, but left early when given the chance.
The center of our main meditation room
I broke our silence and whispered, asking her if she was leaving early? She whispered back yes, "This just isn't where I want to be right now." I think it was really hard for some people to be there. Hard for me at times, definitely, but I'm glad I stayed the 3 days. Sarah and I are on the same train tonight to Bangkok, though, and only 1 car apart, so I'll most likely get to see her there :)So we get to the actual meditation center and have a bit of free time. I change into my newly purchased (huge) white clothes and furtively chat a little with my roommate, Rita, who is a Portuguese girl here with her boyfriend. She actually broke out into hives on Day 2 from some unknown allergic reaction, and she also only stayed 1 night instead of 2. I also begin re-reading the India portion of Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert--remember, that book I bought millions of years ago in the Chicago O'Hare airport, before I began my Thailand journey?--because while she's in India, she stays in an ashram for 4 months and practices yoga and meditation. I figure she's good company for me, these days.
Over the next few days, learn many different ways of meditating: sitting, laying, standing, and walking. Laying meditation, for me, is also known as falling asleep on the cool blue tile floor. Walking meditation I like a lot, especially when we did it at night in the dark, though I prefer to walking in circles to straight lines. Sitting meditation is good, very good, though it gives me quite a bit of pain in my back and shoulders. I especially like sitting meditation when we use meditation beads to help us focus. There were a lot of different methods we learned, utilizing our breathing, chanting, counting, visualization, etc...
In addition to meditation, we also chanted, did yoga each morning, gave the monks offerings of rice each morning for breakfast, and had monkchats. Monkchats are just that--where we all sit in a circle and chat with the monks, mainly about Buddhism and meditation. It provides us with knowledge and insight--it provides the monks an opportunity to better their English. When I had chances, I asked my monk leader which kinds of meditation he finds the easiest/hardest, how Buddhists find that precarious balance between having love for people without attachment, and why teenage monks in cars, for example, will play songs like "Low" by Flo Rida/T-Pain. You know, "apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur... she had the whole club lookin at herrr..." It just doesn't seem very monk-like, does it?
We basically lived like a monk would... the hours we kept, all the meditating, the simple, small portions of vegetarian food, which we sit and contemplate for 10 minutes before eating... except we still only had to follow 5 precepts, and monks always have to follow 227. And at night, they would give us cookies and send us to bed at 9 pm. They don't give monks cookies at night :)
