AND
the meditation center where Emily and I spent two days
Sunday, March 14, 2010
some pictures to help your imagination
Makha Bucha Day (well, night) at the temple in the forest
AND
the meditation center where Emily and I spent two days
AND
the meditation center where Emily and I spent two days
Slowly going to catch up :)
You've missed so much!
I'll let you in on a little secret...I'm in a new country! Say hello to learning about Vietnam :)
I'm learning Vietnamese language, society, and culture while here, and overall just having cool adventures. Our last week in Chiang Mai, Thailand was bittersweet, but lovely. Emily Cameron and I went on a meditation retreat Tuesday and Wednesday. We showed up to Wat Suan Dok around 2 in the afternoon, and forked over 400 baht each (12 dollars), and they bussed us to a meditation retreat center about 40 minutes from the heart of the city. It was a really nice facility, and I had no idea what to expect, except we had to wear all white.
Well they rang the gong and we got our first introduction to meditation with a seasoned monk who was in his late 20s. He had us chant in Thai, and taught us to bow down to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. I think that was my biggest learning experience. I read the sheet we had that told us in parenthesis, the time when we were supposed to bow down to pay respect to the three gems. I was so nervous, because stupidly, I had chosen to be in the first row, right in front of the monk.
I wasn't sure how to not offend him, and I didn't want to create any problems within the first hour of arriving. The problem was simple; there was no way I was going to bow down when everyone else did. It wasn't even something I debated. God's kind of clear on that, he's a jealous God, and I'm not supposed to be bowing before any others. There were plenty reasons, justifications, and rationalities I could have tried to make it ok...but in my mind, it wasn't, and I was not going to. As the head monk said in a super smooth, soft voice "and now, bow down, touch your head to the floor, and pay respect to the Buddha" I stayed still, and kept my eyes forward while everyone around me touched their heads to the floor.
Let’s go back to the reason I was even at this retreat. I think Buddhism is FASCINATING. It’s not nearly as easy as any of the books make it, the people who practice it follow so many traditions that aren’t specifically Buddhist, strange things that to Westerners are pointless. I love learning new things about it. When Emily and I were talking to the monks about the meditation retreats they had, I figured hey, it’s like yoga, a way to clear your mind. I had no intention of actually becoming Buddhist or anything, so I thought it wouldn’t conflict with my religion. I was sort of wrong. The rest of the time we were at the retreat center, we said the same chants and were supposed to bow down to the triple gems at least 4 times. After the first time, I decided to hang out in the back row so that I didn’t appear to be blatantly disrespecting the practice. The monk said that some people didn’t bow down to the Buddha because they were too egotistical or unfriendly. That sucked, because I don’t see it that way at all. I’d been living in Thailand for two months, taking off my shoes in temples, and being polite and respectful of this whole other culture that was deeply infused with Buddhism. I kind of wished that the monk had tried to understand other people’s reasons for not bowing down (by the way, in our group of 15, I was the only one who didn’t), instead of just classifying it as unfriendly. It was a meeting of cultures, and a situation that was misunderstood, but it taught me a lot about myself. I realized that as much as I love learning about other religions, there isn’t any way I’ll be able to shirk my own long enough to partake in others and understand them on another level. Huston Smith was apparently criticized for joining other religions and studying them for extended amounts of time, while all the while considering himself…Christian I think. I realized last week I’ll never be able to do that, and I’m kind of glad. As interesting as it would have been to be able to fully partake in the meditation retreat on its fullest level, as a person studying other religions, I will be drawing my line at actually partaking of things that compromise my relationship with my God.
I'll let you in on a little secret...I'm in a new country! Say hello to learning about Vietnam :)
I'm learning Vietnamese language, society, and culture while here, and overall just having cool adventures. Our last week in Chiang Mai, Thailand was bittersweet, but lovely. Emily Cameron and I went on a meditation retreat Tuesday and Wednesday. We showed up to Wat Suan Dok around 2 in the afternoon, and forked over 400 baht each (12 dollars), and they bussed us to a meditation retreat center about 40 minutes from the heart of the city. It was a really nice facility, and I had no idea what to expect, except we had to wear all white.
Well they rang the gong and we got our first introduction to meditation with a seasoned monk who was in his late 20s. He had us chant in Thai, and taught us to bow down to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. I think that was my biggest learning experience. I read the sheet we had that told us in parenthesis, the time when we were supposed to bow down to pay respect to the three gems. I was so nervous, because stupidly, I had chosen to be in the first row, right in front of the monk.
I wasn't sure how to not offend him, and I didn't want to create any problems within the first hour of arriving. The problem was simple; there was no way I was going to bow down when everyone else did. It wasn't even something I debated. God's kind of clear on that, he's a jealous God, and I'm not supposed to be bowing before any others. There were plenty reasons, justifications, and rationalities I could have tried to make it ok...but in my mind, it wasn't, and I was not going to. As the head monk said in a super smooth, soft voice "and now, bow down, touch your head to the floor, and pay respect to the Buddha" I stayed still, and kept my eyes forward while everyone around me touched their heads to the floor.
Let’s go back to the reason I was even at this retreat. I think Buddhism is FASCINATING. It’s not nearly as easy as any of the books make it, the people who practice it follow so many traditions that aren’t specifically Buddhist, strange things that to Westerners are pointless. I love learning new things about it. When Emily and I were talking to the monks about the meditation retreats they had, I figured hey, it’s like yoga, a way to clear your mind. I had no intention of actually becoming Buddhist or anything, so I thought it wouldn’t conflict with my religion. I was sort of wrong. The rest of the time we were at the retreat center, we said the same chants and were supposed to bow down to the triple gems at least 4 times. After the first time, I decided to hang out in the back row so that I didn’t appear to be blatantly disrespecting the practice. The monk said that some people didn’t bow down to the Buddha because they were too egotistical or unfriendly. That sucked, because I don’t see it that way at all. I’d been living in Thailand for two months, taking off my shoes in temples, and being polite and respectful of this whole other culture that was deeply infused with Buddhism. I kind of wished that the monk had tried to understand other people’s reasons for not bowing down (by the way, in our group of 15, I was the only one who didn’t), instead of just classifying it as unfriendly. It was a meeting of cultures, and a situation that was misunderstood, but it taught me a lot about myself. I realized that as much as I love learning about other religions, there isn’t any way I’ll be able to shirk my own long enough to partake in others and understand them on another level. Huston Smith was apparently criticized for joining other religions and studying them for extended amounts of time, while all the while considering himself…Christian I think. I realized last week I’ll never be able to do that, and I’m kind of glad. As interesting as it would have been to be able to fully partake in the meditation retreat on its fullest level, as a person studying other religions, I will be drawing my line at actually partaking of things that compromise my relationship with my God.
Monday, March 1, 2010
here are some pictures :) of Sukothai and Pizza noodle (Phitsanluk)
the second temple we went to. very large Buddha
Hailey, Me, and Emily
saw this in Pizzanoodle along the river, eventually there was like a family of 5 really cute puppies :)
Jacquie, Emily, and Hailey exploring the ruins in Sukothai
Me (with a super sweet temple in the background)
emilee and i with our babababaw ("crazy" in thai) horse, he tried to go without the driver, and we almost hit a couple cars :)
these supports are for the bo tree. people pay for and donate them to make merit. the idea is that you're helping support the tree under which buddha attained enlightenment (not THE tree, but it's the idea of the thing) there were a TON of these supports, it was really cool
SUPER CUTE puppies at the temple
really old paintings on wood about Siddartha's life (buddha)
Thursday, February 18, 2010
HI!
Last night we went to the night bazaar and looked around, same old same old. Jacquie then knocked on my door with an Australian guy she met at Muay Thai (boxing type sport), and asked if I would go out with them. So a bunch of us ended up hanging out with these three Australian boys: Cyril (cereal), Chris, and Tom. They were nice.
Today we had Thai class in the morning (we learned words for emotions) and then I went to the mall and bought some presents for people. It is SO hot. I was super hot walking back and looked up the weather; it's in the 90s this week. So I'm not as excited for my monk chat because we sit outside and it gets very warm.
But, tomorrow morning we leave for SUKOTHAI. I'm really excited because we have this crazy jam-packed schedule. Sukothai is the old capitol of Thailand and it's supposed to have a lot of history and be beautiful. We get to stay in hotels with pools and go on a bike trip Saturday morning :)
We'll get back Sunday afternoon and have Thai class all next week, and then we all leave for the weekend. Most people are going on village stays with families for the weekend, but I'm going with Drexler, Barbara, and Lauri Maund up north to a novice monk retreat camp thing. I don't really know what to expect, but I'm sure it'll be very enlightening :)
Our Thai Language final is coming up at the end of the beginning of March. Then, the March 5th we leave for 3 weeks in Vietnam.
Last night we went to the night bazaar and looked around, same old same old. Jacquie then knocked on my door with an Australian guy she met at Muay Thai (boxing type sport), and asked if I would go out with them. So a bunch of us ended up hanging out with these three Australian boys: Cyril (cereal), Chris, and Tom. They were nice.
Today we had Thai class in the morning (we learned words for emotions) and then I went to the mall and bought some presents for people. It is SO hot. I was super hot walking back and looked up the weather; it's in the 90s this week. So I'm not as excited for my monk chat because we sit outside and it gets very warm.
But, tomorrow morning we leave for SUKOTHAI. I'm really excited because we have this crazy jam-packed schedule. Sukothai is the old capitol of Thailand and it's supposed to have a lot of history and be beautiful. We get to stay in hotels with pools and go on a bike trip Saturday morning :)
We'll get back Sunday afternoon and have Thai class all next week, and then we all leave for the weekend. Most people are going on village stays with families for the weekend, but I'm going with Drexler, Barbara, and Lauri Maund up north to a novice monk retreat camp thing. I don't really know what to expect, but I'm sure it'll be very enlightening :)
Our Thai Language final is coming up at the end of the beginning of March. Then, the March 5th we leave for 3 weeks in Vietnam.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
MONK CHAT
"and Arex, what did you do today?" -Pichit, a monk we made friends with yesterday at the monkchat!
So yesterday and today Emily Cameron and I have had time to go to the monk chats at Wat Chedi Luang. I'm going because of my independent study and she just finds it fun, so we have been working well together talking with the monks. Last week, we talked to two monks from Laos and came up with a system. We walk in, and get beckoned over by a monk or two, then there is polite chatter about where we're from etc. I then explain that I'm researching Buddhism and how monks relate and work with HIV positive people, and begin the questions :) I write furiously as we ask the questions, and Emily is getting used to what kind of questions I ask, and is super helpful. Towards the end, we try and ask a weird question to lighten the mood :) Examples:
1. So hypothetically speaking, pretend you were meditating and were approached by a poisonous snake, would you kill it before it hurt you? Or would you let it bite you? If you let it bite you, would you go to the hospital?
the monk from Laos who answered this one said that if the monk was meditating on loving kindness he wouldn't be bitten by the snake anyway, because he would be radiating loving kindness. So we said, well what if he wasn't meditating that way? He said that if the snake bit him anyway, he wouldn't kill it but he would go to the hospital because he needs to take care of his body.
2. What if there is a rabid dog roaming the monastery (there are many dogs EVERYWHERE here) and you see it bite another dog and know they are rabid, would you kill the dogs to save other dogs and humans? Or would you kill them to put them out of their misery?
Unfortunately, Songkran and Pichit didn't understand this question yesterday, so we're going to keep trying for an answer. "rabid" was lost in translation
Anyway, so we are having fun talking to the monks, and yesterday, we met two monks: Songkran and Pichit. They were really nice, but their English made it hard to ask my independent study questions, so we ended up just chatting with them for awhile about other stuff. Today we med Chaa-mpa (sp?) and his English was phenomenal, and he said that he is from Laos too. We asked about Songkran and he said that in Laos, monks can touch girls and break the rules for the three days (of Songkran). So he's going home for the festival and he told us he could wear normal clothes and play with his siblings and everything, but in Chiang Mai, the monks cannot break the rules. BUT, Chaa-mpa also uses whitening cream and carries an umbrella to keep his skin from getting too dark. It was really interesting because he seemed to be able to explain the Buddhist teachings and talked about how bad materialism was, but he secretly wears perfume!
While we were talking to Chaa-mpa, Pichit and Songkran came over and said hi, and talked to us for awhile. I think Emily and I are becoming quite the regulars at the Wat Chedi Luang monk chat :) Hopefully, tomorrow I can get a picture with our new monk friends :)
So yesterday and today Emily Cameron and I have had time to go to the monk chats at Wat Chedi Luang. I'm going because of my independent study and she just finds it fun, so we have been working well together talking with the monks. Last week, we talked to two monks from Laos and came up with a system. We walk in, and get beckoned over by a monk or two, then there is polite chatter about where we're from etc. I then explain that I'm researching Buddhism and how monks relate and work with HIV positive people, and begin the questions :) I write furiously as we ask the questions, and Emily is getting used to what kind of questions I ask, and is super helpful. Towards the end, we try and ask a weird question to lighten the mood :) Examples:
1. So hypothetically speaking, pretend you were meditating and were approached by a poisonous snake, would you kill it before it hurt you? Or would you let it bite you? If you let it bite you, would you go to the hospital?
the monk from Laos who answered this one said that if the monk was meditating on loving kindness he wouldn't be bitten by the snake anyway, because he would be radiating loving kindness. So we said, well what if he wasn't meditating that way? He said that if the snake bit him anyway, he wouldn't kill it but he would go to the hospital because he needs to take care of his body.
2. What if there is a rabid dog roaming the monastery (there are many dogs EVERYWHERE here) and you see it bite another dog and know they are rabid, would you kill the dogs to save other dogs and humans? Or would you kill them to put them out of their misery?
Unfortunately, Songkran and Pichit didn't understand this question yesterday, so we're going to keep trying for an answer. "rabid" was lost in translation
Anyway, so we are having fun talking to the monks, and yesterday, we met two monks: Songkran and Pichit. They were really nice, but their English made it hard to ask my independent study questions, so we ended up just chatting with them for awhile about other stuff. Today we med Chaa-mpa (sp?) and his English was phenomenal, and he said that he is from Laos too. We asked about Songkran and he said that in Laos, monks can touch girls and break the rules for the three days (of Songkran). So he's going home for the festival and he told us he could wear normal clothes and play with his siblings and everything, but in Chiang Mai, the monks cannot break the rules. BUT, Chaa-mpa also uses whitening cream and carries an umbrella to keep his skin from getting too dark. It was really interesting because he seemed to be able to explain the Buddhist teachings and talked about how bad materialism was, but he secretly wears perfume!
While we were talking to Chaa-mpa, Pichit and Songkran came over and said hi, and talked to us for awhile. I think Emily and I are becoming quite the regulars at the Wat Chedi Luang monk chat :) Hopefully, tomorrow I can get a picture with our new monk friends :)
Monday, February 15, 2010
here's a couple more pictures
walking across the top of the waterfall in Luang Prabang, Laos
swinging from a rope into the waterfall, AWESOME
at cooking class, making my green curry :)
HEY, back from Laos
The view from the top of the mountain-waterfall
not even the entire waterfall :)
the royal dance troupe after dancing their story about the birdman....it was cool
oh hey! this is me at the 2nd level of the waterfall, and yes, I totally jumped into the water from the top of the waterfall and the tree branch that had a rope :)This morning, I was in Luang Prabang, Laos getting ready to come back to Chiang Mai, Thailand. Before we left our guesthouse in Luang Prabang, a lady who was over 100 years old tied string around our wrists and blessed us (safe travels, good health, etc.) with a Buddhist prayer, it was an experience.
So how about I get this blog caught up over the past two weeks?
For about 12 of those days, there was a British invasion. Alex (my roommate) fell in love with a British boy she met at this really fun reggae club. Needless to say, he had friends. So for awhile I got used to having British boys in and out of our guesthouse, and hanging around in general. Our group and the British boys (a group of 3, 19-20 year olds who were backpacking around SE Asia together) ended up going out and about alot together, and had a blast. We all went to watch the English theatre productions that the Chiang Mai University students put on of The Crucible, and The Virgin Suicides. Their English was amazing, and I was surprised by how well they spoke English and analyzed the plays for their projects.
We also had our Thai Midterm, which consisted of us going to a market and identifying fruit and veggies and bartering for fruit and drinks. Which leads me to my Thai friend I made!
There is a Thai guy that works the night shift at our guesthouse and I asked him to help me practice my Thai. It was really cool, and he told me he was Catholic, which was surprising.
Oh! I also went to a Thai Church that was Christian. It was all in Thai but I had a headset that broadcast an English translation, so that was really neat.
During the week we had a lot of Thai lessons, and it is getting kind of overwhelming. Emily and I went to monk chats and found 2 Lao monks that speak English fairly well, and I interviewed them for my project. The second one we talked to was from Luang Prabang and told us all about the waterfall we needed to go see. The next day we had a cooking class and I made green curry. It was really cool because we used mortars and pestles and I could make mine without everything that I'm allergic to. I also made Thai vegetarian soup and chicken with basil, it was one of the best meals I've had in Thailand.
Friday afternoon we left for Laos, and were instantly charmed by the small town of Luang Prabang. It has one main strip down the middle that has lots of french shops and baguettes everywhere! It should be assumed that we chowed down on all the bread since our carbs were mostly from rice for the past month. Drexler essentially let us loose in Laos and the adults did their own thing (we gained Drexler's wife and John Beckelman and his wife earlier in the week {a Coe teacher and his wife}), so on Saturday we had an adventure.
We woke up and found a french restaurant and had one of the best breakfasts so far, and then commissioned a tuk tuk to drive us the hour long trip to the Khoung Si waterfall and back (900 baht total for all of us round trip). Our tuk tuk broke down once on the trip...but we got there and back safely. I can't describe the waterfalls enough to do them justice, and the entire day felt so surreal. At one point 3 of us went off of the path and climbed part of the waterfall barefoot, and I had to hang my camera from a tree so it wouldn't get wet. It was surreal.
We got back to Chiang Mai today and I turned on my laptop and my sister got ENGAGED over the weekend, crazy weekend.
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