September 23rd, 2019
Today Brendan and I tried something totally new. We signed up for a free, one-day meditation retreat and introduction to Buddhism. Some of our slow boat friends did it the week before and recommended it. I knew this was something really outside of Brendan’s realm, so I was proud of him to go with an open mind and participate.
We got a Grab and went to the temple where this one-day course was held. It began at 9:30am when we were introduced to a monk named KK who served as our teacher for the day. He has been a monk for over 20 years and actually was the creator of this one-day meditation retreat and very personable. He spoke really good English and had a nice presentation that introduced us to Buddhism. Some of the key things we learned was that Buddhism is not a religion but a philosophy. They are open to all religions and there are even monks that are Christian, Hindu, Muslim etc. Buddhism is a practice and a way of life more than a religion. They do not worship Buddha as a god, nor do they pray to him. When you see monks or Buddhists kneeling down in temples and do what I thought was praying, they are actually kneeling and bowing to show respect to Buddha as an enlightened teacher but not to worship him as an idol. They are not ‘praying’ to anyone, but they chant and meditate to keep their minds clear and practice mindfulness. There were several things I associated with Buddhism that are more Thai culture than the practice of Buddha’s teaching and it was nice to have a better understanding of both. Buddhists believe in karma and what goes around comes around. Another key practice is to “let it be and let it go”. Don’t dwell on things as nothing is permanent. They believe suffering is a universal truth and that it is up to you to be able to overcome suffering. It was all very informative.
The first thing we practiced was formal sitting meditation for about 20 minutes in total. We learned about both formal and informal meditation and the positive effects it can have on your day and your life. We broke for lunch and when we came back we were shown formal walking meditation and then movement meditation. Towards the end of the day we had a lengthy Q and A session where we could ask any questions about Buddhism, life as a monk, meditation etc. People’s questions sparked a lot of conversation and this was probably my favorite part of the day. One thing that surprised me was that Buddhists do not have a theory on creation. Buddha’s teaching was more about daily life in the present moment. KK said if you ask a monk about creation he will most likely say “I don’t know”. He said some may have their own personal belief about creation or evolution and it is not up to anyone to judge and it is all accepted. However, Buddhism itself does not have an explanation for this.
It was around 5pm when the class ended, and I thought it provided good insight to a teaching and practice I didn’t really know much about. Many monks are only monks for a short period in their life and it is a huge part of Thai culture. Brendan said meditation is not really his thing but did say he was happy he went to have a better understanding of monks and Buddhism.
At the end of the day we met back up with Tiara and a couple other guys we met at the hostel. We went for dinner and then walked around Chiang Mai for a bit. We played some games together before calling it a night.
This is so cool and I did not know a lot of this. So enlightening and sounds like something I would love to try. Meditation is so hard and any practice or enlightenment can help! Thanks for sharing this!!
“There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth not going all the way, and not starting”
~Buddha ~