Wednesday, January 29, 2025

 Chiang Mai to Meditation Retreat of Monk Chat

My first stop was to retrieve my mala.  The jeweller did a nice job and said it should be strong for many years!  Here’s hoping!


A few businesses were celebrating Chinese New Year with food offerings-







Lunch was MaMa Tom Yum soup.  Wow!


There were 3 large prawns and a gigantic squid-




Many utensils are required-



I walked to Anna’s Motorcycle Rental and signed the contract for my bike. 
 I get a Honda Click so new it doesn’t even have a licence plate but apparently that’s ok?

I then walked 2.6 km to the Wat Sun Dok monastery which is also a university for monks. Along the way-





For those looking for a happy ending-


The retreat started at 1:30 at the Monk Chat Centre just outside the old city of Chiang Mai-


Pra KK was our instructor for the first hour and a half and Jack, dressed in orange, was his helper-


KK explained that the balance between mind and body is a balance between physical and mental health.  He used a good analogy, saying we will spend hours working out which is physical but we spend little to no time meditating which is keeping our minds fit.  


Buddhism is also about loving and respecting yourself.  We must learn to forgive and if we don’t do”it” again, that will lead to less suffering.  


There’s no hell in Buddhism because it’s not a religion.


If you never change you, your life will never change.


People today have lots of knowledge but not much wisdom.


Three things cause basic suffering-  

1.  greed, cravings and desires

2.  anger

and greed and anger combined lead to a delusional ego.


Buddha’s long ears remind us to listen with respect.


After the introductory lecture we hopped in the back of a truck - their version of public transportation and after about a 30 minute ride, we arrived at the centre-



We got settled in our rooms -




My roommate is MacKenzie Morris from Ottawa.  There are 16 of us; Germans, Dutch, a Norwegian and Americans.  This woman is from Asheville and an aspiring Buddhist-


After getting settled we met in a large meditation room but then went for supper right away.  
We were told we could not speak, use our cellphones and to walk slowly and mindfully.  We were told to do the same thing while filling our plates and eating.  We looked like zombies!

After supper we practiced mantra meditation-



KK 
would say a line in Sanskrit and we repeated it.  Then after a verse, he would tell us what it meant in English.


Our second meditation was breathing in and breathing out, all the while paying attention to the breath.  If your thoughts wander, you gently pull back to only concentrate on the breathing.


Our third meditation was walking.  Taking a step with the right foot, then the left, then after a few steps, turning and repeating, all the while saying “right”, “left”, “turning”-



Our fourth meditation was sitting in a chair to give us a break from the floor which was killing me.  We placed both hands on our knees, then starting with the right hand said “lifting” and we raised it, then “moving” and we moved it over towards our body then “turning” and we flipped our hand over, then “dropping” - we placed it into our lap and with our intonation going down, we said “touching”. 
 We repeated the same thing with our left hand/arm a few times-


We did each of these four meditations for at least 30 minutes each and time flew!

Following this KK gave a lecture explaining Buddhism is a philosophy of how to live a good life. Buddha was born 690 years before Christ and was a wealthy prince with a wife and son.  He had all the material possessions he could dream of but wasn’t happy.  He left and wandered, listening and learning until eventually he obtained enlightenment. 


To end the evening, we walked out to the Buddha statue where there are also statues representing each day of the week.  KK lectured again, then we were to choose a statue, set our lit candle in front of it and he didn’t use the word pray, but that’s what we did, being grateful for the important people in our lives-




To conclude the evening, he said a long mantra, this time in English that we repeated and it too was a long prayer, asking for things like good health and world peace.

We finished about 9:45 and made our way slowly to our rooms.


5 am will come early!


What I learned-


There are four foundations of mindfulness:

     1.  Mindfulness of the body

     2.  Mindfulness of feelings and emotions where feelings come from the body and emotions come from the mind.  That’s why it drives me crazy when someone says “they feel” rather than “they think”.

     3.  Mindfulness of thought/ thinking.  We should accept a thought but not dwell on it.

     4.  Mindfulness of wisdom.  If you practice awareness of body, feelings, emotions and thoughts, you will have wisdom.


There are various ways to meditate and for beginners the easiest is the meditation of concentration.  This can provide calm, inner peace using-

  • Breathing exercises like counting from 1 to 10 and 10 to 1.  Breathing in, breathing out.
  • We can observe the abdomen rising and falling.
  • Walking meditations
  • Mantra chanting 
  • Concentrate on the movement - tai chi and Quigong 
  • Counting the beads of the mala, there are 108.

When meditating we should:

  • Set an intention
  • Set our effort
  • Set our concentration
  • Set mindfulness
  • Set practice

Formal meditation is twice a day 20 to 30 minutes each time to learn patience.


Informal is anything you do.


There is a large group here people are for a Vipassana retreat.  It’s insight meditation and a minimum 10 day retreat.  V in Vipassana means “deep” and passana is to see from inside by using mindfulness and awareness.

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