Hey everyone! Indy here. I haven’t posted on the blog in a while so I’ve decided it’s about time.
Wednesday was crazy because of the plans changing unexpectedly. We woke up in Chiang Rai, then took a 4-hour bus ride to Chiang Mai, where we got our bags from storage and then had lunch. I also managed to find time to buy myself a new headlamp at the Rock Climbing store, as my other one decided to break. (Cool.) And then pretty much immediately afterwards, a van picked us up for a few more hours of being on the road! At this point we also met Laurie, who came with us to the Plek Wiwek Dharma center, which is near the Burmese border at Kong Lam (which I think is closer to Chiang Rai than to Chiang Mai, but that’s okay).
Our time at the Dharma Center was amazing. At first, the group generally unwound from the hectic previous week, and then we started to get into meditation as guided by some of the monks with help and translation from Laurie. They call it “practicing meditation” rather than “meditating” for a reason–clearing your mind of distractions (while still being aware of but not attached to them) and focusing on your breathing and mindfulness is surprisingly difficult. I did my best though, and I think it was really good for me since my mind tends to be all over the place. We practiced the four types of meditation–sitting, standing, walking, and reclining. (Don’t tell anyone, but it’s possible I may have fallen asleep during reclining meditation…) My favorites were sitting meditation because it allowed me to focus best and walking meditation because it reminded me of my days practicing ballet. Both were pretty challenging at first, but they got easier as we continued practicing, and we even did a 45-minute sitting meditation yesterday (dude.).
On Sunday we did a full day of Silence, which was amazing. It allowed everyone to do their own thing and meditate whenever they wanted (or not), and I made many personal realizations throughout the day.
Yesterday, we met Ajun Tawnee, who had been away until then. We had some time to ask him some questions about Buddhism and monasticism (including his opinion on internet usage–Buddhism in the present day for you). After that, the monks showed us how to make EM and stucco, even though we had already kinda learned about these things at Pun Pun earlier this month. Still it was cool. About a week ago, Cole looked at my sunglasses and seeing how scratched up they were, told me I needed ones, which I then refused to buy. Yesterday, however, my sunglasses decided they agreed with Cole and pretty much broke in half. Fortunately, Dillon gave me his extra pair of sunglasses (thank you Dillon), which aren’t so blurry and now I can actually SEE! It’s pretty fantastic. After dinner and evening chanting, we had a closing ceremony with Laurie, Ajun Tawnee, and all the novice monks. They taught us how to properly wai to a monk, then gave us each a necklace and a bracelet, the latter being a symbol of friendship in Thailand (as we also got bracelets at our homestays and at both hill tribes. so much jewelry for my wrist). We then gave them each a card with their names on them (made by the wonderful Hadlie and Amby with some help from Rachel and Maggie and signed by all of us) and origami cranes (guess who…). Ajun Tawnee said the cranes were a symbol of freedom and peace (Sadako and the 1000 cranes, if you don’t know the story), and so they wanted to segway (is that an actual word? Also sorry for using so many parentheses. punctuation is awesome) into the lantern ceremony, which also represents freedom and peace.
Like the one at the homestays about a month ago (it’s been so long! I kinda miss my homestay mom), releasing the lanterns was beautiful. (They’re kinda like the ones from Tangled–I had heard of them, but never actually done a lantern ceremony until a month ago.) We were supposed to make a wish as we released them, and I kept mine simple. I would share it, but you’re not supposed to tell people your wish…sorry. Anyway, it should be noted that the lantern ceremony is a Loy Kratong tradition, which is November 5-6th-ish, but unfortunately we won’t be in Bangkok anymore at that point. I’m pretty sure we’ll be in Karat on the 5th and Siem Reap (Cambodia) on the 6th.
Right now we’re back in Chiang Mai for the last time now, as tomorrow night we’re taking a night train to Bangkok. We’ll have two or three days there before going to Thai Plum Village for more meditation, except there I think it will be closer to Zen Buddhism rather than Thervada Buddhism that we encountered at the Dharma Center. I’m pretty stoked for that. Laurie said we’ll need to learn to restrict our snacking needs as a group as there isn’t a 7/11 there like there was at the Dharma Center. I’ve been doing better, I think. After a month of supplementing my diet with cheap ice creams and oreos and peanut butter (and yogurt…yay dairy), I’ve moved on to wanting more (and being able to find) dried strawberries and cashews and almonds (and yogurt…).
But anyway, I’ve learned a lot from being at the Dharma Center, and I can’t wait to be overwhelmed by Bangkok (though I will miss Chiang Mai), and then go on to the Thich Naht Han Thai Plum Village and then to Cambodia. WICKED STOKED
much love and hoping I didn’t forget anything,
-Indigo